Through the Glass, Darkly
by Sonya
Summary: Matrix xover. "Spike's fingers found themselves drawn irresistibly to the round, metallic disk in the back of his neck. And then they traveled upwards, touching his head where he could feel the stubble of newly growing hair just starting to appear."
1. Prologue: Blue

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations (none yet in this part, but they'll be there later, hence the rating)  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: Ever get one of those *really* bad ideas that worms its way into your brain and just won't leave you alone? Well, this was one of 'em. Heh. I mean, c'mon... a Bebop/Matrix x-over? Just what was I smoking when that thunderbolt struck me? *snickers* Well, regardless, here's hoping you enjoy it and that it doesn't entirely suck.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Everything is clearer now  
Life is just a dream, you know  
That's never ending  
I'm ascending   
  
("Blue" -- Cowboy Bebop OST3)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Prologue: Blue  
  
This wasn't what he'd expected heaven to be like.   
  
A rush of dizzying sensations: thick, mucus-like liquid clogging his nostrils, harsh pinpricks of light like needles against his eyelids, something dark and menacing lurking over him, a slurping noise as the ground beneath him vanished and gravity did its work, pulling both he and the liquid surrounding him down and down and down...  
  
Then he was thrown into icy water headfirst, the cold a shock to his senses. He reacted on instinct, trying to swim for the surface, but his arms and legs were strangely lethargic and refused to cooperate. He felt himself sinking like a stone and was unable to do anything about it.  
  
Perhaps this was what hell was like. After all the people he'd hurt and all the deaths he'd caused, could he have in his right mind expected anything better than a one way ticket to damnation?  
  
Something metallic clamped about his body and he felt himself being pulled in a new direction. Soon his head broke clear of the water and he was dragging in shallow, greedy breaths as quickly as humanly possible. The water ran down his skin in rivulets and the cold, night air made him shiver.  
  
He tried to look around him, tried to get a glimpse of where he was, but his eyes felt funny and itchy, so he finally gave up and let them slip closed. It wasn't as if he could see much of anything anyway.  
  
There was a loud clanging sound and he felt the metal encasing his body release him, dropping him unceremoniously on something hard and cold. It felt like some kind of deck plating, which led him to believe he was on a ship of some kind.   
  
There were voices, some louder than others, coming from all around him. He tensed in anticipation of a fight, but belatedly realized the futility of such an action. He couldn't even seem to keep his eyes open. How the hell was he supposed to fight anyone?  
  
The quiet murmur of voices grew louder and after a while he could actually make out words and phrases amidst the noise.  
  
"...what the hell happened..."  
  
"...who is he..."  
  
"...didn't receive any new orders..."  
  
"...looks half dead..."  
  
"...they *always* look half dead, Ginny..."  
  
"...needs medical attention..."  
  
"...god, look at his stomach..."  
  
"...sliced open..."  
  
"...think I'm gonna be sick..."  
  
"...should never have happened..."  
  
"...gonna shit a brick when she finds out..."  
  
He moaned softly, his eyes fluttering open for a second. The light was painfully bright and he closed them again. He coughed and tasted blood on his tongue, its coppery taste feeling more real than anything else going on around him.  
  
"He's awake."  
  
All the voices stopped suddenly. A hand touched his shoulder.  
  
"Hey, can you hear me?"  
  
It sounded like the voice was being magnified tenfold. He winced and licked his lips, trying to force words past his sluggish tongue. "Not... so loud..."  
  
There was a sudden commotion from somewhere off to the side and a new voice spoke. This voice was both comforting and commanding at the same time. It seemed to be speaking to the other voices. "I won't ask who is responsible for this right now. But mark my words, it will not be forgotten."  
  
Then a new hand touched his shoulder and that same voice was speaking to him in soft, compassionate tones. "Can you hear me?"  
  
He nodded slowly, every movement a battle with his unresponsive body.  
  
"Good. I know that everything is confusing right now, but it will be all right. I promise you that. Just rest yourself for now. Answers to all your questions will come in time. For now, just rest easy. You're safe."  
  
Hands lifted him up. They felt almost feverishly hot against his freezing skin. He felt himself being moved to something soft and then he was covered with something warm and slightly fuzzy. A blanket, no doubt.   
  
They were moving now, the cacophony of voices rising around him once more.  
  
That compassionate voice from before spoke again, so close that he thought it was right next to his ear. "Just one question before you get some much needed rest." A pause while he waited expectantly. "What is your name?"  
  
A throat that felt extremely raw pushed forth the words, even though it felt like swallowing shards of broken glass.   
  
"Spike Spiegel."  
  
He could almost hear the smile in the compassionate voice.  
  
"Well, welcome to the real world, Spike Spiegel."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 1. Where is Spike and with whom? And why was he brought here? All of his questions, and yours, will be answered in the next installment. (Yes, you already know some of the answers to those questions just by reading the summary, but trust me, you don't know it ALL yet! *evil laughter* There are plots... within plots... within plots...) 


	2. Chapter One: Keep Myself Awake

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: Well, this is my first ever chapter fic to be posted here. Don't get me wrong, I've written chapter fics before, but this is the first time I've put one up at ff.net. Actually, it's my first fic in 3rd person POV up here at ff.net as well. Isn't it funny how all the fics I post here seem to be 1st person POV one shots? *shrugs* Oddness.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I hate to talk like this  
I hate to act as if  
There's something wrong that I can't say  
I have this dream at night  
Almost every night  
I've been dreaming it forever  
It's easy to remember it  
  
It's always cold  
It's always day  
You're always here  
You always say  
I'm all right  
I'll be OK  
If I can keep myself awake  
  
("Keep Myself Awake" -- Black Lab)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 1: Keep Myself Awake  
  
The next few days were just a haze of memories for Spike. Nothing really seemed to coalesce into anything solid. Everything seemed intangible and unreal. Like he was trapped in a nightmare that he couldn't escape from.   
  
Of course, that might have been the fever talking.  
  
It was almost a week since his arrival here, or so he was told, on the day when he finally managed to speak to someone coherently for more than mere seconds at a time. She was young. Her name was Virginia, but she insisted that he call her Ginny.  
  
"My friends all call me Ginny," she'd told him in her soft, little girl's voice. She couldn't be more than 14 or 15 years old. Just a child.  
  
In fact, almost everyone he met seemed young. He didn't think he'd met one person over twenty in his time here. Granted, he had yet to leave his tiny room, so he couldn't know anything for sure.   
  
Of course, knowing his propensity for bad luck, the one person he actually wanted to speak to never bothered to appear.   
  
Spike could remember the calm and compassionate voice from his first night here as clearly as if it had just spoken. It was about the one thing he *could* remember from that time. And that voice had promised him answers.  
  
Sighing, Spike's fingers found themselves drawn irresistibly to the round, metallic disk in the back of his neck. And then they traveled upwards, touching his head where he could feel the stubble of newly growing hair just starting to appear.   
  
What the hell had happened to him?  
  
He felt weak, though after the fight with Vicious, when he'd felt that last slice of the katana slicing through skin and muscle, a warm wetness seeping out over his hands as he tried to hold his own intestines inside his body... Well, needless to say, feeling a little weak was nothing compared to what could have happened. Hell, by all rights he should be dead. But he wasn't. Instead he was trapped in this strange purgatory of metal rooms and strange implants, not knowing why he was here or even where here was.  
  
It was damn frustrating.  
  
He slumped down on the bed, kicking at the wall across from him with long legs. The rhythmic pattern of his boot impacting the metal was oddly comforting.   
  
God, he would kill for a cigarette.  
  
There was a light rapping on his door and he rolled his eyes. Why they bothered to knock when they just kept him locked up in here like some kind of prisoner was beyond him. If they were going to throw him in this room that was little better than a jail cell without any chance for escape, then casual pleasantries seemed pointless in his mind.  
  
"Come in," he called, sarcasm slipping into his voice almost automatically. He knew they would stand out there forever if he didn't give them permission. Insane, really. The whole lot of them.  
  
The door opened and he squinted against the light that poured in from the outside hallway. A woman stood there. She stepped inside the room, the door closing behind her, and he was able to make out her face.   
  
She looked to be in her mid-forties, if the light sprinkling of gray in her dark hair and the lines around her mouth and at the corners of her eyes were any indication. Her eyes were blue and seemed to be much older than they by all rights should have been, like she'd lived with the weight of the world on her shoulders for far too long. Spike knew the feeling.  
  
"Well, finally an adult comes calling," he remarked, smirking up at her from his position sprawled out on the bed. He didn't bother to stand up.  
  
She raised one eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest, the faded and well-worn fabric of her shirt shifting with the movement. "It's nice to see you, too, Spike." she remarked, the corners of her mouth quirking upwards in a small smile.  
  
He leapt to his feet, pushing back the slight case of dizziness that his rapid movement brought on, and stared at her in shock. He recognized that voice. "It's you."  
  
Her smile grew wider. "You remember me."  
  
Spike nodded. "The hell I do. You promised me answers. So, was that all just a crock of shit or did you really mean what you said?"  
  
Her look could only be classified as indulgent, as if she was only tolerating his antics right now out of the goodness of her heart. Her next words proved him right. "I don't allow my crew to speak to me in such a fashion, Spike Spiegel. I'll allow your transgression to pass this time, but you'd do well to remember that in the future."  
  
Spike glared at her, not at all impressed. "Look, lady, I ain't a part of your crew, so I'll talk however I damn well wanna talk. If you've got a problem with that, then you shouldn't have brought me here."  
  
She frowned but didn't respond to his baiting. Instead she took a step backwards, the door sliding open behind her to allow her to pass. Spike ground his teeth together in frustration. Just great, the one person who claimed to have answers and he'd gone and pissed her off before she'd told him anything. Now she was leaving and he would be stuck in his "cell" again.  
  
Her voice broke into his dark thoughts. "Are you coming?"  
  
He looked up, scarcely able to believe what he was hearing. "You're... letting me out?"  
  
She raised one eyebrow in amusement. "You're not a prisoner here, Spike."  
  
He scowled and muttered under his breath. "You could've fooled me."  
  
She shrugged and gestured down the hallway just outside his room. "Well, are you coming or do you require a written invitation?"  
  
Spike grinned and followed her outside. "You don't need to tell me twice, lady."  
  
"Annie."  
  
Spike's head shot up sharply and he met her calm blue gaze with a pair of startled, brown eyes. "What?"  
  
"My name is Annie." She smiled. "Works much better than 'Lady,' I'd say."  
  
Spike found himself remembering another woman with dark hair and kind eyes who went by that same name, though it seemed like someone he'd known in another life.  
  
'Anastasia.'  
  
'No, don't call me that. Only two people can use that name.'  
  
Spike blinked and shook his head, bringing his focus back to the woman in front of him. "All right. Annie it is."  
  
She led him down the corridor at a slow pace, something that seemed out of place with what he'd seen of her so far. Annie seemed like the kind of no nonsense woman who usually walked at a brisk pace. He suspected that she was just waking slow for his benefit.  
  
"So... you promised me answers," he pointed out as they walked.  
  
She nodded. "That I did. But for what I'm going to tell you, it's better if you see it for yourself. That's the only way for it to truly make any sense in your mind."  
  
Spike gave her an odd look. "Okay," he said slowly, one eyebrow arching in amused bewilderment. "That was overly cryptic of you."  
  
Annie smiled but didn't offer any more information.  
  
As they walked, he began to spot people lurking in corners and down hallways. People who dropped what they were doing as soon as they caught sight of the two of them walking by and proceeded to follow them at a distance.   
  
"We seem to be attracting an audience," Spike noted, recognizing Ginny among the faces.  
  
"My apologies. But your case is rather... unique. They're all curious about you."  
  
Spike smirked. "Good to know that I'm still famous even in the afterlife."  
  
Annie chuckled. "Oh, you're not dead, Spike. Far from it. In fact, in a way, you have never been more alive."  
  
Spike shrugged, not sure what to make of that comment. They reached a large, open area which housed all kinds of computer equipment, most of which Spike didn't recognize. In the center of the room was a circle of six, black chairs that reminded him of something out of a dentist's office. Everything was colored in shades of gray, brown and black. Spike smirked at Annie. "Whoever your decorator is, you should have them fired."  
  
Annie smiled. "I'll take that under consideration."   
  
Turning in a small circle, she clapped her hands together briskly, gaining everyone's attention with the motion. "All right, I know all of you are curious about our newest..." She glanced over at Spike for a beat before continuing. "...guest. But I can assure you all that he is just as curious about us. So please, everyone, allow him time to adjust to-"  
  
Spike yawned loudly, drawing attention away from Annie's little speech and earning himself a displeased look from the lady in question, not to mention disbelieving stares from everyone else. "I'm sure this is all fascinating," he said dryly, "But could we skip ahead to the part where you tell me what the hell is going on?"  
  
Annie frowned at him. "Fine, we'll skip the preliminaries," she conceded with a small nod of her head. "Spike Spiegel, this is my ship, the ABSALOM. And this is my crew." She gestured at the people who formed a small semi-circle around the two of them.  
  
The first to step forward was a familiar face. "You already know Virginia, our operator," Annie informed him, gesturing at the petite, young brunette. Ginny smiled kindly at him and nodded.  
  
"Standing there beside her is Elijah, my second in command." The young man couldn't be more than 16 or 17 years old. It surprised Spike that someone as young as he was could be second in command of an entire crew, no matter how ragtag they were. But he schooled his features into an expression of casual disinterest, acting as if it was no big deal.  
  
The boy in question pushed his mop of sandy colored hair out of his eyes and gave Spike a lopsided grin. "Name's Eli," he informed the lanky ex-bounty hunter. "We don't all stand on formalities here." His gaze moved over to Annie before returning to Spike, his comment obviously a barely-veiled remark at her expense.  
  
Spike grinned. He liked the kid already.  
  
Annie shook her head, the corner of her mouth curling up in a small smile, before continuing. "Then we have Dominick, our engineer."  
  
"It's just Dom," the man in question replied, grinning at Spike in a friendly fashion. His red hair and freckles made him stand out from the others rather easily.  
  
"Next to him is Ezechia-"  
  
"Zeke," she interrupted quickly, making a face at the use of her full name.  
  
"-who is one of my best field agents."   
  
"And we also have Mackenzie," she gestured at the young girl who sat off to the side on top of one of the many computer consoles, her long, blonde hair pulled back in a messy braid. "She is one of my programmers."  
  
"Call me Mac," she told Spike, "Everybody else does."   
  
He nodded, mentally amazed at the number of weird names this group had. No wonder they all wanted to go by nicknames of some sort.  
  
"And behind you is Julian," Annie said. "One of the first crewmembers to be brought onboard. He's our pilot and a brilliant field agent in his own right."  
  
Spike turned around quickly and was met with a pair of cool and almost detached green eyes, crowned by a carefully maintained head of black hair. For just a moment he found himself thinking of Faye. But then the man spoke and his softly cultured voice wiped away any thoughts of the Bebop's resident shrew woman still on Spike's mind.   
  
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Spiegel," Julian said politely.   
  
"Let me guess," Spike replied with a smirk. "It's Jules to your friends."  
  
Julian made a face. "Oh, definitely not. I don't go by any absurd nicknames."  
  
Spike raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further. Julian's stuffiness didn't appeal to him in the slightest.  
  
Just then there was a crash from further down the hallway, followed by the sound of running feet. Annie smiled at him. "And, of course, I can't forget our newest crewmember. Our computer technician and other resident programmer... Edward."  
  
Spike fought down the memories associated with that particular name, resigning himself to yet another familiar name placed on an unfamiliar face. But then a high-pitched voice began making airplane sounds and two skinny arms appeared, almost magically, from behind Julian's back, waving merrily back and forth. Then a head popped up over the prim and proper young man's shoulder. A head topped with a mop of unruly red hair. A pair of enormous amber-colored eyes blinked at Spike.   
  
For a long moment, neither of them moved. And then the girl leapt over Julian's shoulder, almost like she was playing a game of leap frog, and landed on the ground in front of Spike. She threw her arms about his waist, hugging him so tightly that he thought he might fall over. "Spike-person!" she exclaimed happily. "Edward is so glad that you're okay! Edward was very worried that she had been unable to get to you in time!"   
  
And you could have knocked Spike over with a feather at that exact moment, he was just that shocked. After a moment, the shock wore off and was replaced by a look of resignation. Taking Ed by the shoulders, he hoisted her up until they were at the same eye level.   
  
"Ed... what the hell did you do?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 2. More answers just lead to more questions... 


	3. Chapter Two: Welcome to the Real World

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: More insanity from me. *g* If anybody's even reading this car wreck of a fic... LOL!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Welcome to the real world, shake hands with the real world  
Stare all it's dizzy imperfection in the face  
If you don't know the real world, it's time to get to know the real world  
The good news and the bad news is:  
There isn't any other place to be...  
  
("Welcome to the Real World" - Brad Yoder)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter Two: Welcome to the Real World  
  
Spike sat in his bunk, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. He rested his chin on his knees and looked straight ahead at the wall across from him, though his eyes weren't really seeing the gray, metal plating.   
  
Spike was lost in memories from a life that had never really occurred. Everything that he'd believed in, everything that had ever mattered, was a lie. Mao. Jet. Vicious. Faye. Elektra. Doohan. All the people he'd known, all the people who'd mattered to him... he'd never actually *met* any of them. Not really.   
  
And then, of course, there was the person he'd been trying not to think about. Julia. Spike sighed, tilting his head down and resting his forehead on his knees, his eyes slipping closed. He could remember everything about her. The sound of her voice, the touch of her hand, the sunlight glinting off of her golden hair. But she was dead, and he had never really known her. He'd been in love with a woman that he'd never even touched, except in his mind.   
  
'It's all... a dream.'  
  
Julia's final words had new meaning now. A dark, ominous meaning.   
  
It had all been in his mind. Nothing had been real.  
  
And here he'd always thought that his notions of living in a dream world were insane. Apparently, he'd been right all along, just not for the reasons that he'd originally thought.  
  
Annie had shown him everything. She'd stripped away the lies that he'd been living under for 27 years and allowed him to finally see the truth. Spike *had* been trapped in a dream world. But it was not of his own making. It was created by beings over a century ago and had been enslaving the human race ever since. The dream that he couldn't find his way out of had a name. The Matrix.  
  
Somehow the realization that he wasn't insane after all didn't make him feel any better.  
  
There was a soft rap on his door and his head shot up. "Who is it?" he asked, not really feeling up for company right now.  
  
"Edward thought that Spike-person might be hungry. So Ed brought him yum-yum food!"  
  
Spike couldn't stop a small smile from ghosting across his features. Ed was probably the only part of this entire insane situation that made any sense. Which, in and of itself, was a scary thought, he mused. Apparently, when Ed had wandered off in search of her father, she'd found something a lot bigger. She'd discovered the real world, such that it was.  
  
"C'mon in, Ed."  
  
The door slid open and the blur of motion that was Edward skipped inside, placing a tray beside Spike on the bed and then plopping down in front of him with her own tray and immediately shoveling spoonfuls of what looked like they might have once been runny eggs into her mouth enthusiastically. "Mmmm, mmmmm," she mumbled from between mouthfuls.  
  
Spike stared at her, one eyebrow raised in mild disgust. "Ed, how can you eat that stuff?"  
  
She looked up at him, her spoon hanging from her mouth and a small dribble of the white stuff that they claimed was food running down her chin, large amber eyes blinking in surprise. "Mmmphwha?"   
  
Spike shook his head, amused in spite of himself. "Never mind. Forget I asked."  
  
Taking his words literally, Ed turned back to her bowl and began eating again, treating the lumpy mixture like a starving man would treat a four-course meal at a fancy restaurant. In other words, devouring it in huge gulps. When she'd finished, she looked up at Spike, the small line that creased the skin of her forehead displaying her puzzlement. "Is something wrong? Why is Spike-person not eating?"  
  
Spike looked at his own bowl of slop and made a face. "I suddenly lost my appetite." He handed Ed the tray. "Here, you can have mine."  
  
Ed frowned. "Spike-person needs to eat. He hasn't eaten anything in days. He's just been locked away, all gloomy and saaaaad." She drew out the last word and sniffled melo-dramatically.  
  
Spike looked at his tray again and sighed. There was no way he was eating that. "I'll eat later, Ed. I'm just not hungry yet." He made himself ignore the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach, which was telling him that he was a liar.  
  
Ed gave him a stern look, at least as stern of a look as she could manage with her child-like eyes and little pixie face. "Promise-promise?"  
  
The corner of Spike's mouth quirked up into a grin and he ruffled the kid's hair, what there was of it. He was careful not to let his fingers stray lest they touch the circular disk embedded in the back of the young hacker's head. "I promise."  
  
Ed nodded once and sat back on her heels, studying Spike for a long moment. Her serious expression made him nervous. He wasn't used to seeing Ed acting... well, almost normal. "Spike-person is sad." It was a statement, not a question.  
  
He sighed. "Yeah. I am."  
  
She frowned. "Why?"  
  
He blinked. Well, that was definitely a loaded question. Leave it to a kid to ask about the hard stuff and not even really realize what they were doing. "Well, Ed... um..."  
  
She cocked her head to the side and answered for him. "You miss her."  
  
"I... what?" Had she seen through him so easily? God, could he not even fool a child?  
  
Ed's face broke into a sunny grin. "Well, that's okie-dokie, then. Edward can fix it!" She rolled backwards, standing on her head with the odd sort of clumsy grace that only Ed could perfect. Giggling, she clapped her feet together happily.  
  
Spike's mind was a whirl. "What... do you mean? How can you fix this, Ed?" Julia was dead. Not even Ed's legendary computer skills could change that.  
  
"Simple, silly. Edward will take Spike-person back. Then he can see her and he'll be happy again." Ed grinned, looking for all the world like she'd just performed a miracle.  
  
"Take me... back?"  
  
she rolled forward again, landing in a sitting position and rocketing to her feet. She latched onto Spike's arm and tugged him to his feet as well. "Back, tack, mack, wack... Edward will take you back, back, back!" She giggled and began pulling Spike towards the door.  
  
He ground his heels in, stopping their forward momentum suddenly, which sent Ed sprawling back against him. The girl looked up, confusion written all across her young face. "Doesn't Spike-person want to go back to Bebop-Bebop?"  
  
Comprehension dawned. "Ed... what 'her' are you talking about?" he asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral.  
  
She laughed and exclaimed, "Faye-Faye!" Her tone of voice sounded as if that was the most obvious thing in the world and he was being silly for even bothering to ask.   
  
Spike sighed. "Right. Faye." It wasn't the answer he'd wanted to hear, but it did make infinitely more sense. And really, the thought of seeing the Bebop's resident shrew woman was not as repulsive as he liked to make out. He actually wished he could go back. Argue with Faye. Choke down some of Jet's god awful cooking. Listen to Ed's sing-song voice as she called out bounty information from her computer. Trip over Ein's bowl. Fly the Swordfish. Actually have a cigarette again. It all sounded so... normal. And after the insanity that had become his life, normal sounded damn good.  
  
Not that it would happen. As well meaning as Ed was, he knew he could never go back. It just wouldn't be the same. As much as he wanted it to be, he'd always know that it wasn't real. That it was all in his mind.  
  
"Ed, no," he admonished her gently, pulling his hand free from the girl's grasp. "I don't want to go back."  
  
Ed frowned. "Then what *does* Spike-person want, huh? What?" She placed her hands on her hips and looked up at him impatiently.  
  
Spike sighed. "That's just the trouble, Ed. I haven't got a fucking clue."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 3. Now that Spike knows where he is and why, what will he decide to do about it? 


	4. Chapter Three: Where These Dreams Go

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: This one's a bit depressing and I'm afraid that my Spike's a little OOC. What do you think? Terrible? So-so? Actually decent? Please tell me. I can only get better if I get input from all of you, my faithful readers! (Of which there seems to be 4! *g* And my thanks for your reviews!)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
They painted up your secrets  
With the lies they told to you  
And the least they ever gave you  
Was the most you ever knew  
And I wonder where these dreams go  
When the world gets in your way  
What's the point in all this screaming  
No one's listening anyway  
  
("Acoustic #3" -- Goo Goo Dolls)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 3: Where These Dreams Go  
  
Spike looked down at the bowl of slop masquerading as food that sat in front of him on the table and sighed. "Three months."  
  
The petite blonde who sat across from him raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Three months since what?"   
  
Spike made a face. "Three months since I've had anything decent to eat." Spike found himself actually missing Jet's bell peppers and beef without the beef, even if they'd only been in his mind.  
  
Lifting a spoonful of his "dinner" up, he turned it over and watched as it plopped off the spoon and back into the bowl with a wet splat. He dropped his spoon down with a clatter and stood up, pushing his chair back. "Well, I'm full," he remarked, one hand absently picking at the row of circular scars that marred the pale skin on his arm. He shrugged and headed for the door. "I'll see you later, Mac."  
  
Mackenzie frowned. "You don't eat enough, Spike. I know it's not fillet minion-"   
  
Spike snorted. "Not even close."  
  
His dinner companion continued speaking, undaunted by his interruption. "-but it's the best you're gonna get out here. Better that than dying of starvation, right?"  
  
Spike smirked. "I don't know, compared to this shit, starvation's starting to look pretty good."  
  
"Spike..." she started, exasperation written all over her face.  
  
"Sorry, gotta go," he replied with a grin, slipping out the door before she could protest.  
  
As he made his way down the depressingly dull hallway, Spike thought about the wreck that was his life. It hadn't just been three months since he'd eaten decent food, it had been three months since he'd done a lot of things. Flown his ship, chased a bounty, smoked a cigarette (they pretty much didn't exist out here, so Spike had been forced to go cold turkey)... hell, he hadn't even been able to work out and practice his Jeet Kune Do. He was still recovering from the injuries he'd gotten during Vicious's coup attempt on the Red Dragon Syndicate.   
  
The fact that it hadn't been real and yet he still had all the wounds was one of the more frustrating aspects of this whole reality/Matrix issue, in Spike's opinion. After all, if none of it was real, then why was he being forced to suffer through all the pain? Annie had explained to him that, while everything that happened to him in the Matrix was all in his head, his mind somehow "made" the wounds real and they would manifest on his physical body. So if he died while "plugged in" then his body would die back here on the ship. Spike had simply smirked and told her that it figured. That was his life, after all, one long run of fantastically bad luck.  
  
Spike turned a corner and headed for the cockpit. He had a case of itchy feet, or so he called it, and there was only one cure. Find Ginny and ask her to run him through some training simulations. His body might not be ready for the strain of combat, but his mind was more than up to the task.   
  
Actually, in a way, that was one of the things that bothered him most about this whole deal. When he'd asked Annie why they'd chosen him to rescue, she'd told him that they hadn't. She'd said that Ed had taken it upon herself to locate his neuro-signal and then had hacked into the machines' mainframe and forced them to eject his body from the "fields" so the Absalom could come pick him up, something that Ed herself had confirmed. Apparently she'd been keeping an eye on all of the Bebop's crew ever since her own release from the Matrix. And that, Annie claimed, was why he hadn't actually been given a choice about coming to the "real world" like the others had. Ed had made his choice for him.   
  
Now, while that was aggravating, having Ed impose her will upon aspects of his life without bothering to ask was almost expected at this point. Just like she'd commandeered the Bebop so she could come onboard, she'd commandeered his life in order to save it. Add to that the fact that she was the only familiar face onboard this entire ship and Spike had gotten over his initial anger at her actions rather quickly. Besides, it wasn't as if he couldn't cope. Spike had always been good at picking up the pieces and starting over. He'd already done it twice before.   
  
However, the strange part was that, once he'd begun the training simulations under Ginny's supervision, they'd discovered that his brain functioned on a higher level than most people's. This didn't make him smarter or anything, but it did allow him to move faster inside the construct (and also, presumably, the Matrix). According to Ginny's best guesses, Spike had been somehow subtly manipulating the Matrix for years without even being aware of it. That was how he was able to pull off some of the crazy stunts he had and how he was close to unbeatable when it came to hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship and piloting the Swordfish II. He could do things while plugged into those computers that it took most people on the outside years to learn, if they even managed to learn it at all. And he was doing it all out of some natural instinct on his part, without any training whatsoever. Ginny was convinced that, with a proper training regiment, he would become a nearly unstoppable force inside the Matrix.  
  
Now, the fact that Spike seemed to be more suited for these people's quest than almost anyone else alive was a mighty big coincidence, especially when they'd basically kidnapped him into their cause without bothering to ask him if he was even interested. And Spike was never one to believe in luck and coincidence. He had his suspicions about this whole operation, but he hadn't voiced them yet. After all, it wasn't like he could really do much about it. He was stranded on this ship until their next trip back to Zion for supplies, not to mention the fact that he was still recovering from his injuries. So he would bide his time and wait for the right moment. And when that moment came, he and Annie were going to have a little chat.   
  
Until then, he would play their little games like a good boy, make friends where he could, and try to figure out who he could trust. He already knew that, no matter what had happened, Ed was just a pawn in it all. The girl couldn't keep a secret to save her life and she was a damn terrible liar. Yes, she'd been the one to bring him out of the Matrix, but Spike suspected that had been all part of Annie's little plan. This was, of course, assuming that there was a hidden agenda, which Spike was sure that there was.  
  
He reached the door to the cockpit and knocked lightly. A female voice called out, "Spike? That you?"  
  
Spike slipped inside and made his way over to where the young brunette sat behind a large console. "Yo," he said, crossing over to sit in front of her, his arms draped lightly over the back of his seat.   
  
Ginny grinned at him. "Spike, sometimes I think you've perfected lounging around into a bona fide art form."  
  
His only reply was an answering smirk, which denied nothing.  
  
"So, what's up?" she asked.  
  
He shrugged. "Thought I'd take a spin through the construct, try out that new training exercise Mac cooked up."  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?" she replied, reaching down into a box of data cartridges and pulling out one in particular. "Here it is. Mac promised that it was modified to your precise specifications."  
  
Spike grinned wolfishly. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's fire that baby up."  
  
Ginny grinned back and gestured for him to take a seat in one of the six chairs that sat in a semi-circle on the far side of the room. She got up and followed him over, carefully inserting the jack into the plug on the back of his neck and flipping the metal restraints over his hands and feet after he was seated. "If you spend much more time jacked in, we'll have to start feeding you your meals through an IV," she remarked while she worked.  
  
Spike chuckled. "Ever think maybe that was the whole point?" he shot back, one eyebrow arching in wry amusement. "Or have you forgotten what that shit they try and pass off as food around here tastes like?"  
  
Ginny shook her head at him fondly. "Sounds like somebody just finished up in the mess hall."  
  
Spike grimaced. "Called it in one."  
  
Ginny sighed. "Spike, you really need to just learn to deal with the food around here. You're not going to get anything else this far out from Zion."  
  
Spike couldn't help it. He sulked. "A man can't live on that stuff. He needs protein, damn it."  
  
Ginny smiled. "It has protein in it, silly. All the essential vitamins and minerals are in there."  
  
Spike scowled. "Not the same. In my book, if it didn't have to be killed at some point, then it's not protein. Beef, chicken, fish... Now *that's* protein."  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes at him as she took a seat behind her console and began pressing different buttons. "All right, beginning download."  
  
Spike closed his eyes and braced himself for the jolt as the training simulation began. The feeling of his body in the chair was overlaid on the feeling of his feet touching the ground in the construct. It took a couple of seconds for his brain to adjust and center itself in this new reality. Once it had, he opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a sea of white as far as the eye could see in any direction. He heard Ginny's voice in his head. "Starting simulation... now."  
  
He was suddenly surrounded by a rush of images that slowly coalesced into a familiar room. Dirty brown walls made of metal hull plating, cigarette butts crushed out amidst the oil stains on the floor, and a row of ships that Spike would recognize anywhere.   
  
The Hammerhead, the Redtail and the Swordfish.   
  
Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and looking around him more closely. Walking forward, he found himself standing beside Faye's little zip craft and he reached out and placed one hand on its light gray hull. The metal was cool beneath his fingertips and he could feel each dent and slight imperfection on the surface.   
  
God, it was all so real.  
  
If only he didn't know better, he'd swear that he could hear Jet puttering around with his tools and Faye playing some annoying pop song on her ship's radio. He could almost picture their faces. And if he waited for very long, he could almost imagine that Ed would come running inside, Tomato perched on top of her head and Ein barking at her heels, screeching something about a new bounty for them to find and then demanding "something good" when they returned.  
  
Spike sighed and walked over to his old MONO racer, running his hand along the faded red hull. It was just as he remembered it. It's sleek lines and deadly grace calling to him, as it always did, despite the numerous dents and scratches it had acquired over the years. He'd spent ten years of his life in this ship, counting on it to get him out of one scrape or another. There were a lot of memories invested in it, just like there were a lot of memories everywhere he turned in here. Three years spent wandering around in this hangar. Three years of Jet's quiet strength providing him with the closest thing he'd ever had to a home. All gone in an instant. All never really his to begin with. All just a figment of his imagination, part of his endless waking dream. All just a bunch of numbers and codes in the monstrosity known simply as the Matrix.  
  
It was ironic, really. He'd spent so much time trying to escape from his life. And now, when he'd finally done it, all he wanted was to go back.  
  
It really was true what they said. You can never go home again.   
  
Shit.  
  
Spike really fucking hated irony.  
  
He swiped at his eyes with the back of one hand and whirled around, putting his back to the Swordfish and what it represented: everything he'd lost.  
  
"Operator," he ground out from between clenched teeth.  
  
"What's up, Spike? Something wrong?" Ginny sounded worried.  
  
"Get me the hell out of here," he demanded, fighting to keep his supposedly unflappable calm. Ha, that was a laugh. He was anything but calm.  
  
"Spike, why? What happened?"  
  
"Nothing happened, god damn it, just get me the fuck out of this thing now!"  
  
There was a dizzying rush of air across his face and he experienced that sense of being in two places at once: standing on the deck of the Bebop and sitting in a chair in the cockpit of the Absalom. Then it passed and he was back in the real world once again, all ready tugging at the restraints and clawing at the plug in the back of his neck to get free.  
  
"Spike, wait!" Ginny jumped up and ran over to his side, trying to still his frantic movements. "Let me do it."  
  
He subsided uneasily, letting her remove the plug and cuffs, remaining still throughout the process through sheer force of will. Once she'd finished, he practically leapt from the chair and headed for the door.  
  
"Spike, please, will you tell me what's wrong? Was it the program? Did Mac not get it right?"  
  
Spike shook his head as he ducked out the door. Looking back at Ginny for a brief moment over his shoulder, he replied, "No, that's just it, she got it exactly right."  
  
Ginny frowned, worry and confusion written all over her features. "Spike, I don't understand."  
  
Spike gave her a grim smile. "Neither do I, Ginny. Neither do I."  
  
All he knew was that, after a life spent thinking he was trapped in a dream, he now found himself in the real world. And it was like being trapped in a nightmare.  
  
"You can never go home again, Ginny," he said softly, so softly that he wasn't even sure if she could hear him. "Never."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 4. Spike learns a few home truths about life in the "real world" when he wants to pay a visit to his past. And speaking of the past, what's going on back inside the Matrix? How are Jet, Faye and Ein getting along without Spike and Ed? And what will they do when they get a mysterious message from a ghost? A message containing only one sentence: "Death is not the end." 


	5. Chapter Four: Black Balloon

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: People have expressed interest in knowing what Jet and Faye have been up to all this time. Well, I'm glad you wanna know, because this is when you get to find out! And on another note, thanks so much to the people who've taken the time to leave me reviews. There were several times when I started to doubt whether or not this story was even worth continuing, but then I'd read one of those lovely reviews and it would restore my faith in the entire thing. I may not have the most reviews out there, but I damn well have some of the best! I love when you guys tell me things that you'd like to see or things that might need changing/improving... it really helps me keep my focus on what's important. So thanks again!  
  
La Cidiana: Wow, I'm so flattered that you chose *my* Spike revival fic to read. *blushes* And thanks for putting it on your favorites list. That means so much to me!  
  
Case: I'm glad the new characters I added in didn't put you off the story. Rest assured, Spike and Co. will be the focus of this little saga. The other charries are going to be spending most of the time on the sidelines. I know how weird and off-putting it can get when new characters seem to take over the fic, so I won't be allowing that to happen here. :)  
  
Lady Razorsharp: Thanks for the kind words. And *two* reviews already from you! Wow. My humble thanks.  
  
coetzee b: Coming from the author of "If I Bleed," your compliments mean so much to me! *blushes* Thanks so much for both reviews and I'm glad that my fic gave you a reason to understand all the complexities of The Matrix. ;)  
  
Zithromax: Your review put a smile on my face. Just the idea that somebody would actually care so much about whether I got any reviews or not made me happy. Thank you. :)  
  
Wicked-Wytch: So it's weird but it doesn't suck. *ponders* I can live with that. *g* I always knew this was a weird idea, but it was just one of those things that wouldn't leave me alone. A rabid plot bunny that latched onto my ankle, so to speak. My Spike-muse just insisted that I write it. His reasoning? That he'd look damn sexy in black leather and sunglasses. And you know, I just couldn't argue with that. ;)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Baby's black balloon makes her fly   
I almost fell into that hole in your life   
And you're not thinking 'bout tomorrow   
'Cause you were the same as me   
But on your knees   
  
A thousand other boys could never reach you   
How could I have been the one?   
I saw the world spin beneath you   
And scatter like ice from the spoon   
That was your womb   
  
("Black Balloon" - Goo Goo Dolls)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 4: Black Balloon  
  
Faye stared at the couch that sat in the Bebop's living area for a long moment. She watched as Jet walked by and took a seat in the chair across from her, and still she stood, staring at that godforsaken couch, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.  
  
"It's not gonna bite, you know," Jet remarked.  
  
Faye shot him a glare. "I know that!" But she still couldn't bring herself to sit down. It was damn annoying.  
  
Jet sighed. "It's been three months, Faye. Somebody's gonna have to sit on it sooner or later, unless we're just calling it a loss and selling the damn thing."  
  
Faye nodded, took a deep breath and gingerly sat down, feeling the entire time like she was intruding somehow. It had been three months and she still halfway expected to see Spike's lanky frame sprawled out on the couch whenever she walked into the living room. That spot, more than anywhere else, had been *his* in a way that defied time. She thought that 5 years from now, if she was still living on the Bebop, he would continue to have some kind of mystical hold on that tacky, yellow couch that prevented her from sitting on it. It was just like him, she mused, to find a way to annoy her even after he was gone.   
  
"So, what's on the menu for today?" she asked, trying to get her mind away from dangerous subjects and back to something safe. Thoughts of their former partner were *not* safe, not in the least. Better to focus on getting the job done day in and day out. It was the only way to keep things from falling completely apart.  
  
Jet typed some commands into the keyboard and the turned the screen around. "This is our guy," he announced. "Albus Kinch. He pulled a huge heist, stole 100,000 vials of Bloody Eye right out from under the ISSP's noses."  
  
Faye frowned. "Why would the ISSP be keeping that much Bloody Eye in stock? The stuff's illegal. Shouldn't they have sent it off to be destroyed?"  
  
Jet nodded. "In theory, yes, but you know as well as I do that the ISSP's out to make a profit where ever they can. So they store illegal narcotics in these huge, secret warehouses, under the pretense of holding it until it can be destroyed, and then arrange drug deals with the Syndicates on the side and make a tidy profit out of it. Kinch used to be with the ISSP, so he knew how it all worked. He broke in, stole their entire stock and made out like a bandit. The ISSP's all kinds of embarrassed over it, since it makes them look both corrupt and incompetent, so they're making a big deal out of it. Putting a huge bounty out on the guy so they can 'protect the people from exposure to this highly addictive, illegal drug' or so they say here." Jet pointed at the screen, indicating the appropriate passage. "So we find Kinch and turn him in to them for a big, fat 30 million woolong reward."  
  
Faye nodded. "Okay, so what about this Kinch guy? Do we have any leads on where he's going with the stuff? Is he going to sell it to one of the remaining Syndicates or will he try to line up a different buyer?"  
  
Jet shrugged. "I have no idea, but it says that he was spotted just this morning in Tharsis City on Mars."  
  
Faye's eyes grew wide. "Mars?" she repeated, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "But, we haven't been to Mars since..." She trailed off, not able to finish the sentence. But, of course, Jet knew exactly what she was referring to.  
  
Jet sighed. "It had to happen sooner or later, Faye. You know as well as I do that there are still two large Syndicates operating on Mars, and after what happened to the Red Dragons there will be plenty more coming in to try and claim a piece of the pie, so to speak. Mars is a hot spot. It's literally crawling with bounty heads."  
  
Faye nodded, staring down at her hands. "You're right. It's just another bounty, same as all the others. No big deal."   
  
Now if only she could sound like she really meant that...  
  
Jet took her words at face value, apparently deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth. It had been three months since Spike's death and she couldn't even bring herself to say his name aloud yet, not to mention all the fuss she put up about that damn couch. The fact that she was willing to go back to Mars was almost a miracle.  
  
He hit a few keys on the console before shutting it off. "I sent the bounty data to your ship's computer. We'll be arriving at Mars in about an hour, so you'd better get ready."  
  
Faye nodded and stood up, heading slowly back to her room to change. Once there, she spotted Ein curled up on her bed but she didn't shoo him away. He reminded her of the past, back when things were still good. Or as close to good as her life ever got, at least.   
  
Ein had wandered back into their lives almost a month ago. They'd been searching for a bounty back on Earth, a real small fry but money was tight and they still weren't operating on Mars then. One day, out of the blue, Faye'd been sitting in a cheap bar when she heard what sounded like a dog barking just outside. She'd looked up on instinct and seen a familiar head poking up at the bottom of one of the low windows. He'd been half-starved and in desperate need of a bath, but he'd been alive. Faye found herself worrying about Ed when she didn't find the young hacker anywhere nearby, but there was nothing to be done about it. She'd brought Ein back to the Bebop with her and Jet had, predictably, gone all mother hen on the poor dog. He'd seemed happy to have somebody else to care for aside from just Faye. Faye had just been glad to recover a piece of her past onboard the Bebop, no matter how small.  
  
Stripping off her robe and slippers, Faye pulled out a pair of well-worn jeans and a green t-shirt. The jeans she'd gotten shortly after everything that happened three months ago, the shirt she'd found in Spike's room and claimed as her own. She'd stopped wearing the yellow hot pants and halter-top. They lay in a pile in the bottom of her closet. Faye didn't know why, but it had felt wrong to continue wearing them. It had felt like living in the past. She had to accept that she'd lost that part of her life when Spike walked down the hallway and away from her. He'd gotten himself killed and left her to deal with the fallout. The lunkhead. Now she was trying to build a new life for herself, one where she didn't just steal, gamble and borrow her way along. She wanted a life that she could be proud of. True, bounty hunting wasn't the most noble of professions, but at least now she was pulling her weight. When Jet found a bounty with his ISSP connections, Faye was the one who went out after them. Faye was the one who came stumbling back to the Bebop with cuts, bruises and black eyes most nights. And Jet was always there to fix her up and send her out again.   
  
They had to keep to the smaller bounties most days. After all, Faye was no Spike Spiegel: Danger Boy Extraordinaire. She and Jet played it safe. They went after the ones they knew they could catch, even the small fries. And they did a pretty good job of it most days. They hardly ever had to go without food or fuel, at any rate. Of course, part of that was attributed to the fact that Faye had stopped depositing her share of the rewards at the casino and instead saved it for living expenses and for slowly paying off her massive debts.   
  
And, every so often, they'd go after a really big bounty, like this Kinch guy.   
  
Faye pushed down a surge of nervousness at the thought of today's assignment. 30 million woolongs was a lot of money. In the old days she would have jumped at the chance and even been reckless enough to try and take him down solo so she could have all of the reward without splitting it with the others. But now the thought of the money made her think of why he was worth it. The big bounties were invariably the most trouble. It was as if it was some kind of unwritten law: the amount of money a bounty head was worth was directly proportionate to the amount of trouble it took to catch said bounty head. And now that she was the front man on all the jobs, the thought made her nervous.   
  
She sat down on the edge of her bed and began pulling on her boots. She picked her boot knife up from off the nightstand and tucked it inside her left boot. Ein whimpered in his sleep and she smiled, reaching out to lightly ruffle his fur. Then she stood up and pulled her hair back from her face in a ponytail. She'd let it grow out and it now reached a little bit past her shoulders when she left it down.   
  
Grabbing her gun, she checked to make sure it was fully loaded and then tucked it into the waistband at the back of her jeans. Grabbing the black leather jacket that hung on her closet's doorknob, she slipped it on and checked to make sure the hem of the jacket concealed her gun. Satisfied that it did, she took a deep breath and walked out of her room, heading down the hallway to the hangar to begin pre-flight checks on the Redtail. She was determined to catch this bounty with no problems. Everything would go smoothly, she told herself over and over again. It would be just like clockwork.  
  
Of course, nothing was ever easy for Faye Valentine. And this bounty would be no exception...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When Spike entered the mess hall, he was greeted with the remarkable sight of Ed walking across the table top on her hands, her feet dangling in the air over her head and a bowl of food balanced precariously on her knees. Annie was watching her nervously from where she sat a few seats down the table. Smirking, Spike wandered over to the table and sat down across from the older woman, balancing his chin on his upturned hands and watching Ed with a bemused expression on his face.   
  
It took a little while, but eventually Ed lost her balance and toppled forward. Spike, who'd been expecting this, had already reached out to catch her before she bashed her head in on the table. The bowl of slop went flying into the wall, where it bounced off and fell to the floor, leaving a long streak of white goop in its wake.   
  
Ed shook her head and grinned up at Spike. "Spike-person has good reflexes," she commented, her amber colored eyes twinkling in merriment.   
  
Spike shrugged in reply, sitting Ed back up carefully. "I try."  
  
Ed gave him a jaunty salute and scampered down off the table. "Edward is going now!" she called out in her singsong voice, practically skipping out the door and leaving he and Annie alone in the mess hall.  
  
Spike rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I'll never understand what goes on in that girl's head sometimes," he remarked.  
  
Annie smiled at him. "Well, that makes two of us, then."  
  
Spike nodded, though his mind was already on other matters. "Annie, I need to ask you for something."  
  
Annie's smile vanished, quickly replaced by her usual all-business expression. "Yes, Spike?"  
  
"I want to go into the Matrix." Before Annie could object, Spike raised a hand to stop her words and plowed on ahead. "I'm already faster in the Construct than everyone else on your crew. I don't need more training, I need first hand experience with the real thing. You know it, and I know it."  
  
"It's too soon. I've never taken someone inside this soon before."  
  
"Well, I'm not like anyone else on your crew, am I? Ginny says that I'm already as good as field operatives with years of hands on experience."  
  
"Why are you asking for this, Spike? We both know it's not because you suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to help us with our mission. What's in this for you?"  
  
Spike gave her a hard look. "If you want me in this operation of yours, you have to trust me."  
  
Annie returned his look with one of her own. "If you want me to trust you, you have to earn that trust."  
  
Spike frowned. "I can't earn your trust if you don't give me a chance."  
  
Annie sighed. "You want to go back, don't you? That's what this is about."  
  
Spike froze. "What?"  
  
"You want to revisit your old life, maybe tell your friends what really happened to you, am I right?"  
  
"So what if I do?" Spike replied, finding himself on the defensive now.  
  
"You can't tell them anything. Anyone who's still plugged in is potentially an Agent. You can't trust them. If an Agent got a hold of you, they could get names and descriptions of every operative on this ship. That information is too valuable to risk just because you've got a slight case of homesickness."  
  
"So what? You get to play God? Pick and choose who gets to know the truth and who has to keep on living a lie? Since when do you have the right to hold that kind of power over others?"  
  
Annie's face was the picture of calm, but her eyes flashed angrily, betraying her true emotions. "I am the captain of this ship! It's my job to ascertain who is best qualified to know the truth." She gave him a pointed look. "Maybe you should consider the fact that there might be a *reason* why I didn't authorize your release from the Matrix. You're far too stubborn and hot headed, reckless, unable to take even the simplest of orders... you are probably the last person I'd choose to join our mission."  
  
"Hey, like you just pointed out, I never asked to be brought into this little quest of yours," Spike pointed out angrily. "I didn't get a choice either way. Therefore, I'm not a member of your crew. You can't tell me what to do. If I want to go in, I will. And you can't stop me."   
  
Annie shrugged. "That's true. But I can tell you this: if you enter the Matrix without my permission, I will unplug your body, no questions asked. Don't assume that I'll be lenient with you just because I'm one of the 'good guys.' If you endanger yourself, you endanger my crew. And I cannot allow that."  
  
Spike's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that you would murder me in cold blood, Annie?"  
  
She nodded, her eyes grim. "If you force my hand, I will. Never for a moment think that you're irreplaceable, Spike Spiegel."   
  
Spike stood up, his eyes never leaving her face. "Well, at least now we know where we stand," he said coldly. Then he turned and headed for the door.  
  
Her voice made him pause. "I'm sorry it had to come to this."  
  
He shrugged. "So am I." When he began to walk away again, she didn't try to stop him.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When Faye got back to the Bebop, she was a mess. Cuts, bruises and a lovely stab wound in her right thigh to complete the picture. But she and Jet were now 30 million woolongs richer, which made it all worthwhile.  
  
She stumbled into her bedroom, narrowly avoiding her partner in the darkened hallway. She wasn't up for his mother hen routine tonight. All she wanted was to patch up her leg and collapse on her bed.   
  
Grabbing the first aid kit that hung on the wall over her nightstand, Faye quickly stripped out of her jacket, boots and jeans, leaving her clad only in Spike's old t-shirt and a pair of socks. Sitting down gingerly on the edge of the bed, she bit her lip to keep from crying out when she poured some hydrogen peroxide over the wound. It bubbled and hissed as it killed any lingering germs and Faye closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out evenly to block out the pain. After a moment, she set about wrapping it up tightly.   
  
While she was working, the small communicator she'd set down on her desk beeped. Frowning, she quickly finished up with her leg and walked - limped really - over to see who'd left her a message. The name she saw in the sender column nearly made her heart stop in shock.  
  
She blinked and looked again, trying to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing. Yep. There it was. Plain as day. The name of a ghost.  
  
Spike Spiegel.  
  
Clicking on the message with trembling hands, she waited for it to scroll out before her. It was a text-only message that contained one sentence:  
  
"Death is not the end."  
  
And that was when Faye began to scream...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 5. Faye doubts her sanity, Jet goes on a crusade and Spike ponders his options. 


	6. Chapter Five: Lies

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving space cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: And we're back! After a small break so I could go take my last few final exams of the semester, it's back to the Bebop for this happy author. :)  
  
Oooooh... more reviews!!! *happy dance*  
  
diamond dew: Thanks for the compliments! *blushes* And as for any other unplugged charries... well, you'll just have to wait and see like everybody else... ;)  
  
Wicked-Wytch: "I never thought about that, but it's a damn good excuse to write a cb matrix xover." Hehehehe. I thought so. And sorry about the cliffhanger. Hope you didn't lose too much sleep over it. Maybe this chapter will help...  
  
madeleine: Well, as far as Spike and Faye go... good things come to those who wait. And that's all I'm saying at this juncture. ;)  
  
Case: Thanks for the compliments! I'm so proud that you think my Ed is written well, esp. since she's one of the harder characters for me to write! And I'm glad that you're enjoying the org. characters that I've added in. That means a lot to me!   
  
La Cidiana: My Spike's worthy of a rawr??? Wow, thanks! *g* And as far as any SxF goes, please do stick with me. I have plans for both characters that I hope my small group of faithful readers will enjoy, even the non-SxF ones. Oh, and don't worry too much about Faye changing her appearance because of what happened with Spike. She's still the same "shrew woman" that she's always been, she just went through some tough times is all. But she's still got that famous Faye Valentine 'tude going on, I promise, so no worries on that front!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Bound at every limb by my shackles of fear  
Sealed with lies through so many tears  
Lost from within, pursuing the end  
I fight for the chance to be lied to again  
  
("Lies" - Evanscence)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 5: Lies  
  
When she found him at last, Spike was hunched over a computer monitor, the green glow of the encoded Matrix flickering across his pale, drawn face. He knew she was there before she even said a word. He had a knack for doing that. She had quickly learned that one didn't sneak up on Spike Spiegel. He snuck up on you.  
  
"How do you people see anything in all this mess?" he asked, his voice verging on whining but ending up just sounding grumpy. The code continued its vertical dance across the screen undaunted, despite his complaints, almost as if it were mocking the ex-bounty hunter's efforts.  
  
Ginny shrugged. "It just takes time, I guess. Most of us are so used to it, we don't even see the code any more."  
  
The Matrix had to be viewed encoded. There was simply too much information contained inside it for their computers to handle without some kind of buffer. Hence the scrolling green characters that Spike was currently glaring at.  
  
He growled under his breath and pushed his chair away from the screen, one hand moving to run restlessly through his hair but quickly aborting its motion when it encountered the short stubble of newly grown hair instead of the thick, green mop he was used to. Sighing in obvious frustration, he slouched back in his chair and put his feet up on the counter in front of him.  
  
Ginny watched all of this with a concerned eye. "Spike? Are you okay?" she asked softly, pulling up a nearby chair and gingerly taking a seat.   
  
The ex-bounty hunter shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "Sure, why wouldn't I be?"  
  
Ginny sighed. "I don't know, I just... I get the feeling that something's wrong." She met Spike's lazy brown gaze with her own worried blue one. "You know that I'm your friend, right? If something was wrong... you could tell me."  
  
Spike laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh. It sounded bitter. "Am I, Ginny? Am I really your friend? What do you even know about me? For all you know, I could have been a cold-blooded killer in my former life. I could have taken innocent little girls like you and destroyed them, just for the hell of it. I could have been a sociopath, a psychotic, or maybe even an assassin."   
  
His eyes flashed with something that Ginny could only describe as dangerous. It unnerved her a bit. She'd seen Spike in many different moods before: casual and laidback, moody and depressed, excited and anxious... but never would she have pegged him as dangerous. Certain images flashed through her mind unbidden: the way he picked up on things faster than anybody she'd ever met, the smooth, almost feline grace of his movements, how he never sat with his back to a door, his lightning fast reflexes, the way he always knew if someone came up behind him without them having to say a word...  
  
Ginny shook such thoughts out of her head, adamantly refusing to even consider them. "No, that's not possible. I know you, Spike. You're just not that kind of person."  
  
He raised one eyebrow in an almost condescending fashion. "Is that right?"   
  
Ginny nodded, trying not to look as nervous as she suddenly felt. "Y-yeah," she replied, her voice trembling slightly. "That's right."  
  
Spike sighed and leaned forward, dropping his feet down to the floor, his elbows balancing lightly on the table and his chin resting on the palm of his hand as he studied her. "What if I told you that I spent almost two decades of my life as an assassin for the Red Dragon Syndicate?"   
  
He stared at her face as he spoke, but it was almost as if he was looking right through her, looking into the past. "They found me when I was 9. I'd been wandering the streets on Mars for as long as I could remember. They took me in and gave me to a man named Mao Yenri, who raised me as if I was his own son. I killed a person for the first time when I was 15 years old." He blinked and suddenly it was as if he was back in the present. When he looked at her, Ginny felt like he actually saw her again. "So, you see, you don't know me at all."  
  
Ginny frowned. She didn't like the way he looked at her, as if he was a condemned man waiting for the sentence to be handed down. In his eyes, it was as if he'd already lost. "Okay, so there are things about your past that I don't know about, granted. And some of them sound like they're pretty bad. But that's not who you are now, Spike. Don't you get it? This is like your second chance. You can be whoever you want to be here. And when I look at you, I get the feeling that there's something good inside of you. And *that* is why I'm your friend, Spike. Because I know that when you get your act together, you're gonna be a pretty great person to know."  
  
Spike rolled his eyes, but Ginny could see the smile lurking underneath his 'I could care less' expression. "You should write these little speeches of yours down. They'd be great on greeting cards."  
  
Ginny grinned. "You've found me out, Spike. In my old life, I worked for Hallmark."  
  
Spike smirked. "Yeah, right. Like I believe that for a second."  
  
Ginny shrugged and leaned back in her chair, glad to see that Spike seemed to have shaken off his self-destructive mood for the time being.  
  
"Hey, Gin?"  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes. Only Spike would think to make up a nickname for a nickname. "What?"  
  
"If I needed your help with something... but you couldn't tell Annie about it... would you do it?"  
  
Ginny raised an eyebrow. "It would depend on what it was."  
  
"Well... I want to send somebody a message..."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Faye Valentine had been many things throughout her long life, but up until now insane hadn't made the list.   
  
She looked down at the series of messages that she'd gotten within the last few days. All from the same person... a person who, by all rights, should be six feet under and incapable of communicating with her. And yet, there they were. All lined up in a neat little row. Three messages from her ex-partner of sorts: Spike Spiegel.  
  
The first one, with its cryptic message proclaiming that "Death is not the end," had been odd enough. But then it was followed with the even more cryptic message: "Life is only a dream." And now she sat staring at a new one that announced "The Matrix has you." Whatever that meant.  
  
Honestly, of all the crazy things, Spike had apparently decided to become Cryptic Guy in the Afterlife. It was just absurd.   
  
"God, I think I *am* going insane," Faye muttered, looking down at Ein, who lay curled up in a little doggie-shaped ball on her bed. The dog's ears twitched slightly but otherwise there was no response to her statement. Not that she'd really expected one.   
  
"Great, even the mutt won't vouch for my sanity," she sighed, laying back on her bed and staring up at the stains that decorated the ceiling in her small room onboard the Bebop. "And, to top it all off, I'm talking to the dog again. That's not a good sign, Valentine. Definitely not a good sign."  
  
The ship was quiet. Too quiet for Faye's tastes. Jet had shot off like a rocket after seeing that first message from Spike... or somebody who was claiming to be Spike, at any rate. The ex-cop had muttered something about his contacts, but Faye wasn't sure what he thought he was going to accomplish. Short from digging up their late friend's grave, there wasn't much they could do as far as she could see. Without Ed around, there was little chance of hacking their way into some info on the messages. Jet might be handy with a computer for the easy stuff, like searching for bounty heads, but he was no Radical Edward. And Faye was pretty much computer illiterate.   
  
Faye sighed and couldn't help but make a face at the idea of digging up a three month old corpse to try and solve their current mystery. Ick. She was definitely glad she'd abstained from that task. Digging up graves sure as hell wasn't in her job description, something she'd made very clear to Jet before he left.  
  
She hadn't even been laying down for more than a few seconds before her gaze was drawn back to the communicator with the three messages waiting there, all marked urgent. God, why was this happening now? She was finally starting to get her life back in order and then Mr. Fuzzy Hair had to find a way to wreck it all again. And Jet, what about him? He'd taken Spike's death pretty hard. He didn't talk about it much, but she could tell. Those messages had re-opened a lot of old wounds, for both of them. Leave it to Spike to throw their world into a tailspin with only three short sentences. The lunkhead.  
  
Her communicator beeped, gaining her undivided attention instantly. A new message appeared on the screen, blinking steadily.   
  
Faye watched it from her bed for a long moment before she slowly stood up and made her way warily over to her desk. When she saw the name of the sender, one almost as familiar to her as her own, she sighed loudly.   
  
"Fuck, not another one."  
  
Then she reached out and tapped a button, causing the message to scroll across her screen. There was no note. Just an address and a time.   
  
Faye looked at her watch. She had one hour to get there. The question was: did she really want to go? Spike had done nothing but harass her almost the entire time she'd known him. He'd never liked her. Hell, he'd barely tolerated her presence onboard the ship.   
  
Besides, this whole thing could be some kind of hoax. A ploy to lure her into a trap. She and Spike both had plenty of enemies to go around, after all. Bounty hunting didn't earn one any brownie points among the more shady elements of society, not to mention Spike's Syndicate enemies and her massive debts. Going to that address without any backup was stupid. Hell, it was more than stupid, it was downright moronic. And Faye Valentine was *not* a moron.   
  
So that settled it then. She wasn't going. No way in hell was she going.  
  
Faye went back to her bed and sat down on the edge, one hand absently reaching out to scratch Ein behind the ears. The little Welsh Corgi looked up at her, blinking sleepily. Faye met his gaze for a minute, her left foot tapping out an anxious rhythm on the floor.   
  
Tap, tap, tap, tap.   
  
"Don't look at me like that, I can't go," she told the dog, who continued to watch her, his ears twitching slightly. "I'd be an idiot to go."   
  
The dog continued to stare at her, which caused her to growl in frustration. "Jet would have a hernia if I disappeared on him now, you *know* that."  
  
Still, Ein stared at her, his head cocked to one side.   
  
"Besides, I don't give a rat's ass, even if it *is* from Spike." The dog seemed to look doubtful, which made Faye gasp in indignation. "I don't!" she insisted adamantly.  
  
Ein yawned and rolled over, snuggling up on her pillow, something she normally hated. Now she was so worked up that she hardly even noticed. She pounded her fists down on the bed. "I don't!" she exclaimed again, though it lacked conviction.  
  
After a long moment of silence, broken only by the occasional snore from the dog, Faye stomped her foot angrily and jumped to her feet, grabbing her coat and her gun on her way out the door, a furious expression on her face.   
  
"Aaaaaaargh, if it *is* that lunkhead, I'm damn well gonna kill him!!!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Jet Black would have rather been anywhere than where he was right then.   
  
He watched as three men slowly pulled a dirty coffin out of a just unearthed hole in the ground. The shovels they'd used to dig it up were laying off to one side. One of them began to dust the coffin off while the other two reached out for the lid.  
  
"No," Jet said quickly, causing them all to freeze in surprise. "I'll open it. You three go occupy yourselves for a bit. I'll call you back when I'm done here."  
  
They looked like they were about to protest, but Jet flashed his badge at them and instead they beat a hasty retreat over to a clearing a little ways down the hillside. Grinning, Jet pocketed the badge, leftover from his days in the ISSP. Stupid morons didn't even know an out of date badge when they saw one.   
  
Jet looked at the familiar gravestone for a long time. It was surrounded by weeds and the small flower vase on top of it was empty. Spike Spiegel's grave didn't get very much traffic. Jet's friend Bob from the ISSP was the only person other than Jet and Faye who even knew who had been buried here. The grave marker was blank. They'd done that on purpose, just in case some of the surviving Syndicate goons got any funny ideas. Jet had enough experience with the Syndicates to know that you never took any chances where they were concerned, not even with somebody who was already dead.  
  
Jet and Faye had petitioned for weeks before they'd been granted the right to bury their friend in peace. Apparently, the ISSP had been holding his body as "evidence" of some sort... or so they said. Bob had contacted them 16 days after the incident at the Red Dragon headquarters in Tharsis City and told them that the high-ups in the ISSP had handed over custody of the body to them for immediate burial. When Jet and Faye had arrived at Bob's office, not quite knowing what to expect, he'd brought them out here and shown the marker to them.  
  
Jet still remembered his exact words on that day.  
  
'Your partner was pretty bad off, Jet. Cut to ribbons. I didn't think you two should see him like that.'  
  
Jet had wanted to protest, to insist that he see his friend's body with his own eyes. Nothing else could truly convince him that it was real, that Spike was actually gone. But then he'd looked at Faye's face. Bob was right. She shouldn't have to see the body. It would just make it harder for her. And so Jet had remained silent about his concerns, though they'd hovered at the back of his mind ever since... waiting.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Jet walked up to the simple wooden coffin and reached out, placing one hand atop its rough surface. "Well, Spike 'ole buddy, I guess this is it, huh? Time to find out the truth."  
  
It only took one hard shove to open the lid. He stared down inside the coffin for a long moment before he silently reached out and pulled the lid back down.   
  
A wave of his hand brought the three workers back. "Did you find what you were looking for?" one of them asked.  
  
Jet shrugged. "I suppose." He gestured at them to get back to work and they reluctantly began the process of getting the coffin situated back inside the hole in the ground, obviously wanting to know what was so important about the mystery grave but not wanting to upset the police officer any further. Soon the sound of shovels sending dirt falling down over the coffin could be heard. Nodding at them once in thanks, Jet turned and began making his way down the hillside and back to his Hammerhead, which was parked on the street outside the small cemetery.  
  
And now, after all these months, he finally had his answer.  
  
The coffin had been empty.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 6. So... what will Jet do now that he knows that Spike's grave is empty? And who sent the message to Faye? Spike? Or someone else? 


	7. Chapter Six: Learn to Fear

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations  
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: Well, the Matrix sequel comes out this weekend. So this is just my chance to say that if any of the main Matrix cannon is altered in the new movie, I will probably be ignoring it. It all depends on what it is, of course, and if at all possible I'll try to keep the Matrix side of things as close to cannon as possible, but if something they cook up contradicts things I've used here, I'm just gonna call this one an AU (*snorts* As if it's NOT already, LOL!) and move on with life. Hope that's cool with everyone. ;)  
  
Also, just so you guys know, I'd planned to have more Jet and Spike in this chapter, but Faye sort of took over the damn thing and wouldn't let me move on to the boys just yet. So we'll just save them for Chapter 7, okay? *g*  
  
Now... onto the really important stuff: more reviews!!! Yay! *happy dance*  
  
Jeva: Thanks for the compliments! *smiles* They mean a lot!  
  
Case: Yeah, I don't like it when stories conveniently "forget" Jet or simply use him as comic relief. So definitely none of that here! *g* And thanks for being such a faithful reviewer. It's nice to see comments from you throughout the process. It definitely helps me to see what's working and what I need to improve. :)  
  
emi: Thanks! And no, your reviews aren't weird. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave them for me.  
  
Wicked-Wytch: Sorry for responding to a cliffhanger with another cliffhanger. *sheepish grin* I really need to stop doing that, don't I? Well, thanks for being such a good sport about it and continuing to read regardless of my cliffhanger ways! :)  
  
La Cidiana: Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad that line worked out well. :) And you're welcome on both counts (i.e. reviewing your poem and responding to your reviews in here). I'm glad to do it! (Besides, here's my secret: I'm horrible at returning emails sometimes, so this way guarantees that you guys get my replies! *g* Yep, that's me. The Queen of Laziness! LOL!)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Oppression  
To divide and to conquer is your goal  
Oppression   
I swear that hatred is your home  
Oppression  
You just won't leave bad enough alone   
  
But oppression  
I won't let you near me  
Oppression  
You shall learn to fear me   
  
(Oppression - Ben Harper)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 6: Learn to Fear  
  
When Faye arrived at the meeting place, she felt more than a little nervous about the whole thing. After all, one didn't just fly on over to the hollowed out remains of the Red Dragon Syndicate's headquarters and take a peek inside. Not without a hell of a good reason, anyway. Whether or not this was such a reason, she had yet to decide.  
  
She parked the Redtail a few blocks away from her destination, killing the lights and hopping lightly down to the sidewalk below. After locking the ship up behind her, she began to make her way towards what was left of the building. She was grateful now for her black jacket and dark colored jeans, which allowed her to blend in with the shadows that came with the onset of twilight. Her bright yellow halter-top and hot pants ensemble would have made her stand out like a sore thumb.  
  
As she got closer to the building, she pulled out her gun and gripped it tightly in both hands. Just being here, after everything that had happened, was giving her a bad case of nerves. Her hands wouldn't stop trembling. "Damn it, Valentine," she scolded herself. "It's just a building. Nothing more. And whatever happens in there, you can handle it."   
  
Pep talk over, she ducked underneath the yellow police tape that still surrounded the remains of the building and made her way to the large, open space where the front doors used to be... before what looked to be a grenade explosion had knocked them out, that is.   
  
Faye smirked. "One guess who was responsible for that," she muttered to herself. "Damn lunkhead never did know how to be subtle."  
  
Upon entering what had been the main lobby, once upon a time, Faye stared up at the escalators and sighed. They were also the victim of a large explosion, if the fire damage was anything to judge by. There was definitely no way she was going up that way. "Well, shit," she said to herself, frowning. "Now what am I supposed to do?"  
  
As if in answer to her question, she noticed a small door off to the back that had a cartoonish picture of a stairway on it. Grinning, she walked over to it and peeked inside. Yep. Back stairs. Perfect.  
  
By the time she'd made it to the roof, Faye was about ready to collapse from exhaustion. Even for somebody in good shape, like she was, it was a really long climb. She leaned against the wall by the door that led out onto the roof, clutching her side as she tried to catch her breath. "Damn bastard," she muttered between gasps for air. "Had to pick the roof. Couldn't stick to ground levels like any rational human being."  
  
Once she had her breathing under control, Faye adjusted her grip on her gun and placed one hand to the doorknob. Counting to three silently, she threw the door open and sprung out onto the roof, gun at the ready. Which would have been very impressive looking had anyone been there to see her, she supposed. Too bad the place looked deserted, at least as far as she could tell.  
  
Faye lowered her gun, though she didn't put it away yet, and took a step forward, squinting into the near darkness. Devastation surrounded her everywhere, testimony to the desperate battle that had occurred on this very roof. She could still make out the pale ghosts of the chalk outlines that the police had made around various dead bodies if she looked closely, though time had wiped them away to almost nothing.   
  
Even the roof hadn't escaped the fire damage that seemed to proliferate the entire building. Scorch marks and crumpled segments of wall were everywhere she looked. She took great care with where she walked, afraid she might take a wrong step and wind up falling through the roof to the floors below.  
  
She approached the stairs in the middle of the roof slowly, her eyes riveted to one old chalk outline in particular that lay at an odd angle right in the middle, facing back towards the destroyed elevator. According to the articles she'd read just after the fact, that was where Spike had been found.   
  
Faye took the stairs slowly, carefully picking her way through debris until she reached the place where his body had lain. Unable to help herself, she knelt next to the faded white outline and reached out her left hand until her palm rested against one cool, metallic step. The knuckles of her right hand were wrapped around her gun so tightly that they'd turned white. This was it. The place where he'd died. Until now, she'd never been able to gather up enough courage to come and see it for herself. Her gun hand began to tremble as she stared down at the stairs, entranced, unable to keep her mind from taking her back in time to that night, when everything had gone to hell.  
  
A noise off to the side caught her attention and she jerked her hand away from the stairs, bringing her gun up to point in the direction she thought the sound had come from. She squinted into the distance, trying to locate the source of the noise, but was unable to make much of anything out amidst the shadows. "Who's there?" she called out, keeping her voice calm and steady through sheer force of will. "Come out, or I'll shoot."  
  
"Miss Faye Valentine," a cold, emotionless voice announced. For some reason, just the sound of the voice made Faye's skin crawl. She gripped her gun even more tightly, her finger hovering just over the trigger.  
  
From out of the shadows, a figure appeared. He was dressed in a black suit and black sunglasses adorned his eyes, even though the sun had already set a while back and light was at a minimum. His head was mostly bald, though what hair he had was brown and nondescript, and in one hand he held a gun which was currently down at his side, not actually pointed at her but, she was sure, ready to be used at a moment's notice.  
  
"Who wants to know?" she demanded, with as much bravado as she could muster. Her gun was aimed at his forehead, right between the eyes, and despite her trepidation about this whole situation, it didn't waver once.  
  
From each side of the mystery man, another man appeared, flanking him. These two newcomers were dressed similarly in black suits and sunglasses and they also held guns at their sides. The first man looked to each of them and they nodded once, coming to some kind of silent agreement.   
  
"I am Agent Jones," Suit #1 said in his monotone voice. "These are my compatriots. We would like you to come with us, Miss Valentine."  
  
Faye frowned. "What the hell is this about? Am I under arrest or something?"   
  
Jones shook his head. "No, of course not, we just want to ask you a few questions. Now if you would please lower your weapon..."  
  
Faye raised one eyebrow at them. "If this is legit, then why did you have to impersonate a dead man to get me to show up at this little party of yours?" She adjusted her grip on her gun, keeping it aimed at Jones. "Oh, and by the way boys, if you think I'm lowering my gun just on your say-so, then you're seriously deluding yourselves."  
  
A muscle in Jones' jaw twitched, the only thing betraying the frustration that he must have been feeling at Faye's refusal to cooperate. "Miss Valentine, please don't make this harder than it has to be."  
  
Faye smirked, slowly rising to her feet, her gun still pointed at him. "Hey, what can I say? I've always been a pain in the ass. Too much attitude for my own good, or so they tell me." As she spoke, Faye began to slowly back her way down the stairs, feeling her way carefully with each step, her eyes never leaving the three agents.   
  
"Please don't attempt to escape. I can assure you, it is quite pointless." Jones took a step forward, his lackeys flanking him on either side.  
  
Faye continued to make her way down the stairs undaunted. "You might be right," she replied with a reckless grin. "But I always take the big gamble. It's just in my nature."  
  
The three agents watched her impassively as she moved away from them, but made no move to chase her. Faye had reached the bottom of the stairs and taken a couple of steps back toward the exit before they spoke again.   
  
"We need your help, Miss Valentine. We have reason to believe that you have information on the whereabouts of your ex-partner, Mr. Spiegel."  
  
Faye froze, her heart leaping into her chest. "What...?" she whispered, her eyes growing wide. Her gun wavered slightly and she felt her vision blur. Swiping at her eyes with the back of the hand not holding her gun, she glared at them hotly, her anger wiping away any surprise she'd felt. "What the fuck are you talking about? Spike is DEAD."  
  
Jones smiled, but it lacked any real mirth. Just like everything else about him, his smile was cold and emotionless. "If you're so sure of that, then why did you come here tonight?"  
  
Faye took a deep breath before replying in a voice so soft that they would have missed it if they weren't listening for her answer. "Because I didn't want to believe it," she whispered brokenly, talking more to herself than she was to them. "I didn't want him to be gone."  
  
"We don't believe he really is gone, Miss Valentine. And if you help us, perhaps together we can find him."   
  
Jones' voice was deceptively gentle and kind. Faye didn't believe the Mr. Nice Guy routine for a second. "Yeah, right," she snorted, tightening her grip on her gun and willing her hands to be steady. "Even if he WAS alive, I'd never turn him over to you."  
  
"Touché, Miss Valentine," Jones replied, his mouth twisting into a cruel smirk. "But do you really think you'll be able to find him without our help? And even if you did manage it, do you think for one second that we wouldn't track you both down eventually?" He took another step forward, his sunglasses glinting in the headlights of a passing ship, making him look almost demonic. "We always get our man, Miss Valentine. You'd do well to remember that."  
  
Faye glared at him. "You bastard," she spat, "I've dealt with assholes like you before and I sent them packing. So why don't you do yourselves a big, fat, fucking favor and leave while you have the chance?"   
  
Not waiting for a reply, Faye squeezed the trigger on her gun, sending a bullet heading straight for Jones. And in a feat that she would have said was impossible had she not seen it with her own two eyes, he dodged the bullet easily, his body contorting as he bent sideways and calmly let the bullet pass him by. She'd seen more emotion from a block of ice than she had from this guy as he avoided death like it was nothing.  
  
The four people on the roof stared at each other in silence for a long moment, no one saying a word. Then the three agents raised their guns and pointed them at Faye.  
  
"Shit!" she cursed under her breath, diving to the side behind a pile of debris, narrowly avoiding the hail of bullets they sent after her. She covered her head with both hands, gun still clutched tightly, as the bullets rained down around her hiding spot.  
  
Then, suddenly, there was silence. Taking a deep breath, Faye spun around and twisted her body around the side of the fallen piece of rock and twisted metal she was crouched behind, firing off three quick shots towards where she last remembered the agents being and then ducking away again when they began returning fire.   
  
Ignoring the gunfire, Faye pulled a tiny device out of her pocket and hit the single red button that adorned it, activating the Redtail's autopilot and calling it to the homing beacon she clutched in her hands. Only parked a few blocks away as it was, the little zipcraft made excellent time and soon zoomed overhead, cannons firing, causing the agents to scatter.  
  
"Yes!," Faye crowed, a vindictive grin appearing on her pretty face as the Redtail came around for a second pass.   
  
Explosions rocked the already unstable building from the ship's weapons, making the ground beneath Faye's feet tremble dangerously. Cursing again, Faye changed tactics and called the zipcraft to her. It flew over her head and hovered just beyond the side of the building, waiting. Taking a deep breath, Faye scrambled over the debris she was currently hiding behind and made a run for it. She felt bullets from the agents' guns whizzing past her as she ran, one clipping her cheek and more impacting at her heels.   
  
Once at the edge of the roof, she climbed up onto the ledge and spun around, firing off the remainder of her bullets at Jones, who had begun to chase after her. He dodged them all with inhuman ease, raising his own gun to return fire.   
  
Faye turned and jumped for it, landing on the clear pod of the Redtail's cockpit with a grunt of pain as her ankle twisted under her. Slapping the release button, she began to crawl inside the cockpit when there was a loud bang and a sudden flash of agony in her shoulder as one of Jones' bullets hit its mark. The pod finished opening just then and Faye fell inside clumsily, her mind a whirl of pain.   
  
As the cockpit sealed itself closed around her, she slapped the autopilot off and turned the ship around in a wide circle, ignoring the hail of bullets against its metal hull. And then, in a blast of engines, she was gone, speeding in a tight arch around the building. Grinning mercilessly, she fired off two missiles, both impacting the building at its base. Then she watched as the building began to crumble in on itself, slowly collapsing in a huge explosion of fire and smoke.   
  
Sighing, Faye finally allowed herself to relax. Whoever those men were, they were dead now. Nobody could have survived that. Turning the Redtail around, she began the slow trek back to the Bebop. Jet would be there. He had to be. All she needed to do was to get to him and Jet would take care of her like he always did.  
  
'Please,' she thought to herself, 'please let him be there...'  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Jet was out on the deck with Ein when he saw the Redtail approaching from the distance. "Finally," he muttered to himself. "I swear, that woman has the worst knack for disappearing whenever something important happens."  
  
As Faye's ship got closer, however, Jet noticed that it was swaying in the sky drunkenly, smoke coming from one of its engines. "Shit," he cursed, his anger forgotten only to be replaced by concern for his partner. "What's she gotten herself into this time?"  
  
Muttering about the troubles of being saddled with a reckless, hotheaded partner, Jet herded Ein back inside the ship and slapped the release for the hangar doors. As they rumbled open, he watched anxiously as the Redtail attempted to land on the Bebop's deck. Crash was more like it. Faye went down hard, the little zipcraft spinning at the last minute and crashing into the deck at an odd angle. The engines were killed and the cockpit began to open as Jet ran towards her, Ein ignoring his instructions to stay inside and following at Jet's heals, yapping loudly.   
  
"Faye!" Jet called, as he climbed up to the now open pod. What he saw made him grit his teeth in anger and frustration. Faye was a mess. She'd been shot in the shoulder, leaving blood all over the cockpit, and she was lying slumped in a heap, barely moving.   
  
"Faye, can you hear me?" Jet asked, shaking her gently.   
  
She groaned and her eyelids fluttered. Her mouth moved and he leaned forward to make out her words. "Spike... Matrix... life's... a dream..." Then her head lolled to the side as she slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
Shaking his head, Jet gathered her into his arms and lifted her gently out of the cockpit. As he made his way back inside the Bebop so he could take care of her wounds, her strange words replayed themselves endlessly through his thoughts. Sighing, he laid her down on the couch, staring at her battered and bruised form for a moment. "Spike again," he murmured, scratching at his bald head in confusion. "Damn it. What the hell is going on?"  
  
He glanced down at Ein, who sat at Faye's side, licking her hand. The little dog looked up at Jet and gave a forlorn little whimper.   
  
"Don't worry, buddy," Jet reassured the Welsh Corgi, even though he knew the dog couldn't understand a word he said. "I'll fix her up, good as new. And then I think it's time she and I sat down and had a talk. This Spike thing gives me a bad feeling, like something's coming that I don't know about. And I don't like that, Ein, not one little bit."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 7. What do the Agents want with Spike? What does it have to do with Faye and Jet? And are the crewmembers of the Absalom involved? Those are the questions that Spike wants the answers to and he'll stop at nothing to get them. 


	8. Chapter Seven: Party Fears Two

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations   
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: I know, I know, I promised answers this time around and failed to really deliver. Somehow the set up took me longer than I thought it would, though. Next time. Promise. :)  
  
Also, I just saw the Bebop movie again and realized that I really love the character of Electra Ovilo. She's probably my favorite secondary character in the entire Bebop universe! She totally kicks ass! So I figured, why not bring her into the storyline, at least for a little bit? *g* Anyways, here's hoping everyone enjoys this new chapter!  
  
Now... onto the new reviews....  
  
teh rabid fangirl of DOOOM: I'm glad you're enjoying it! And ooooh, two reviews before I even had time to finish this next chapter? Wow, thanks! As far as Faye pulling a Julia, I never really thought of it that way, but I can see your point. A little spooky, isn't it? And here I was just going for the fact that she'd be semi-repeating what the three messages from "Spike" said, LOL!  
  
Wicked-Wytch: Thanks! And as for Jet, no worries, he's gonna get his fair share of screen time.   
  
sidhe_ranma: Thanks for reading and I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint. :)  
  
La Cidiana: I'd like to think so, but I can't take all the credit. This story has just really been flowing well for me. I have other series *gazes sadly at the Buffy/Doyle series that hasn't seen an update in over a year* that are stalled out while this one seems to just be zipping along. *looks back and eyes widen* Wow, I'm basically getting two chapters a week out on this! That's crazy fast for me! *blinks* Anyways... as far as your reaction to Faye's little adventure, wow! I can't believe I got that big of a reaction out of somebody! Though, come to think of it, the chocolate overdose from the M&Ms might've had something to do with it, huh? Hehehehehehe. Be careful not to go into sugar shock. I'd miss all your lovely reviews!!!   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
So what if this party fears two?  
The alcohol loves you while turning you blue  
View it from here, from closer to near  
Awake me  
  
(Party Fears Two - Sulk)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 7: Party Fears Two  
  
It was two o'clock on an ordinary Monday afternoon when Electra Ovilo received a message from a dead man.   
  
She was sitting at a bar, nursing a drink and planning out the rest of her day's schedule, trying to decide if she needed to do any more work or if her budget could handle a night off. Sadly, it looked as if it couldn't.   
  
"Life of a bounty hunter, all trouble and not enough money to show for it," she muttered to herself with a sigh. Yes, that was something that no one had thought to mention to her before she signed on for this gig. If she'd known she'd be living on peanuts, she might've reconsidered her options. Not that she'd had very many options to speak of after the whole Vincent situation went sour and the military blamed it all on her. She'd been lucky to escape with just a dishonorable discharge, though she figured that she'd only gotten that because she'd been the one to fire the bullet that killed her former lover. Had Spike done the honors and been able to claim the bounty for himself, she'd probably have been in a very different boat.   
  
Besides, at least she was moderately good at this particular career. She was smart, she could fight, she was proficient with a gun and she still had some military contacts who owed her favors. In a way, she was made for the life of a bounty hunter. So that's how she'd spent the last few months: chasing after bounty heads, living life on her own... though she'd often wished for a partner who could keep up with her. She'd tried out a few, but ditched them in a matter of days. Morons, the lot of them. Sadly, there was only one man she'd ever worked with in a bounty hunting capacity who she could even picture as her partner. Hell, she'd even secretly harbored a fantasy of one day convincing him to leave the Bebop and partner up with her. Not that it would have ever happened. He and those friends of his belonged together in a crazy sort of way. Anyone could see that. And it wasn't as if it really mattered anymore. He was dead now.  
  
Electra sighed again, staring down into the amber depths of her drink. That had been a bad day... the day she'd gotten a call from Jet Black telling her to turn on the Channel 6 News. It had been a bloodbath, that much was clear, even in the few grainy pictures the media had managed to get. One man had managed to do what no one else would even dare to think of, let alone try. He'd taken down the largest syndicate on Mars single handedly.   
  
Electra had at first thought that Jet was mistaken. As crazy as Spike had acted sometimes during the few weeks they'd known each other, he'd never struck her as the suicidal type. Because that's what it was. A suicide mission. When he'd left that night, he couldn't have thought that he'd make it out alive.   
  
And he hadn't.  
  
She hadn't really known how to react when his name had been listed among the casualties. It wasn't as if they were lovers or anything. Hell, they'd never even kissed. Aside from a little harmless flirting and one conversation in a jail cell, they hardly even rated as friends. Yes, she'd been attracted to him. He wasn't what you'd call good looking, at least in the conventional sense, but he had a sort of casual grace about him that one didn't find very often. There was just something in the way he held himself that spoke of a quiet self assurance, of a strength that went beyond the physical, a sense of being *free* in a way that few people were. Spike Spiegel was a man who couldn't be owned by anyone. Even when he was bruised and beaten, held at gunpoint and facing his death at the hands of a madman, there was something in his eyes - those crazy, mismatched brown eyes - that let the world know that he was in charge of his own destiny and that if he ever died, it would be because it was his choice to do so.  
  
So, yeah, she'd been attracted to him.  
  
Electra thought that a person would have to be blind to *not* be at least a little bit attracted to Spike Spiegel, should they ever have the opportunity to cross paths with him.   
  
But that didn't mean that she loved him. She barely even knew him. She *respected* him, she supposed. Liked him, even. But none of that helped her to figure out how to deal with his death. Just a simple, "Oh, that's too bad" was simply not enough. Insulting, really. But she couldn't very well tear out her hair and wail to the heavens about the unfairness of it all, either. In the end, she'd gone to a bar and gotten fairly well sloshed, which didn't help much in the long run but damn well made her feel better right then.  
  
A beeping from inside her jacket pocket distracted her from her wandering thoughts. Setting her drink down, she pulled her communicator out and flipped it on...   
  
...and stared at it for a long moment, frozen in shock. She was looking at a message from a dead man.  
  
"Well, I'll be damned," she murmured as her communicator continued to beep at her.   
  
Looking up at the bartender, she waved him over and indicated her almost empty glass. "Again please, and make it a double." Her gaze wandered back to the message that awaited her. "I think I'll need it..."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Spike Spiegel was never happier than when he was breaking the rules somehow. It was just one of his quirks, he supposed. An unhealthy desire to cause trouble of almost any kind. There was nothing like the thrill of the chase, the rush of doing something wrong or the excitement of a tough fight. Many different people had told him that one day he'd come to regret his rash behavior, but he never paid any attention to them. He couldn't, really. Because the danger called to him, lighting a fire in his blood that simply couldn't be put out. He had to answer its call. Some would say he even lived for it.  
  
So that was why he found himself crouched over a computer monitor with Ginny, sending an illegal message into the Matrix and constantly checking over his shoulder to make sure they weren't caught red handed, so to speak.  
  
"Okay, it's done," the young brunette announced finally, pushing her chair back and sighing in relief. "Message has been received."  
  
"Great job, Gin. You know, you should reconsider this whole 'nice girl' routine you have going." Spike grinned wolfishly as he added, "Because you'd make one hell of an outlaw."  
  
Ginny smirked. "Nah, I don't think so, Spike. While I may occasionally dally in rebellious activities, I'm a good girl at heart and you know it."  
  
Spike shrugged. "Yeah, I know. Besides, you're too young to be a good rebel. You've at least gotta be in your twenties to pull off the whole 'bad girl' thing."  
  
Ginny made a face. "I may only be 15, but I could hack my way into almost any computer that exists, Spike. Let's see you top that."  
  
Spike chuckled and couldn't resist ruffling her hair, something that he knew annoyed her to no end. "I wouldn't dream of it, Gin. Now, Ed on the other hand..."  
  
Ginny scowled. "Humph, so this is the thanks I get. I help your sorry ass out and you repay me by teasing me?"  
  
Spike stood up, stretching the kinks out of his body after being stuck in one position for so long. "Hey, you know me," he replied in an offhanded tone of voice. "I'm a laugh a minute."  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes, unable to keep from grinning up at him in spite of herself. "Riiiight, because I'm just so amused right now."  
  
Spike shrugged. "You said it, not me."  
  
Ginny made a noise that was somewhere between a squeal and a growl of frustration, which made Spike grin. It was nice to have someone he could be like this with. Just friendly banter and no mind games or intrigues to worry about. Ginny and Ed were really the only two people on the entire ship that he trusted enough to let his guard down around. And Ed... well, she was a sweet kid, but she just wasn't much for linear conversation.  
  
Spike sighed and leaned back against the doorway. It was times like these when he missed his days spent on the Bebop the most. He would never have admitted it at the time, but Jet, Faye and the rest were almost like some kind of twisted version of a family to him. And he found himself wishing he could figure out some way to get it all back... get *them* back.   
  
Hell, he even missed the damn dog!   
  
Giving Ginny a brief smile, he said, "Thanks for your help. Really. It means a lot to me."  
  
"You're welcome, Spike."   
  
She returned his smile easily, which was something he envied. He'd always found it hard to smile a *real* smile at someone that easily. He could laugh at people, smirking was a no brainer, and he could always play the part of a joker if needed... but a *real* smile was something altogether different, and altogether much harder.  
  
"Well, rule one of breaking the law is never get caught at the scene of the crime," Spike announced. "So, I'm gonna make trails. See if anybody wants to spar with me or something."  
  
Ginny nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later."  
  
As Spike slipped out into the hallway, he pondered the message he'd just sent and wondered if it was the wisest move. He couldn't very well send any messages to Jet or Faye. They were under observation; he was sure of it. Annie wasn't one to take any chances. And that, in turn, greatly limited his options.  
  
Spike sighed as he walked. He just hoped that he'd made the right choice...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The living area of the Bebop was unusually silent, given that its entire crew was situated in that precise location. Jet sat in his usual chair, Faye was lying on the couch - still recovering from her wounds at the hands of Agent Jones and his cronies - and Ein was curled up on the floor beside her. But nobody was talking.  
  
Of course, given that they'd each just received some rather shocking news, that was almost to be expected. It had taken them over three months to finally start to get back to a semi-normal existence after Spike's death. And now it had all been shot to hell by 4 short - and, they now knew, forged - messages, a trap sprung by three shady agents, two heavy hearts and one empty grave. Hell, Faye mused, all they needed now was a fucking partridge in a pear tree and they'd be all set for a rather morbid and insane Christmas.  
  
A shrill beeping sound brought Faye out of her thoughts and she glared at Jet, who was already reaching out to answer the call. "Leave it," she advised. "It's either gonna be a bounty tip that we can't follow up on with both me and the Redtail currently out of commission, or it's another fake message from Spike that will just lead to one of us getting shot at and almost killed. Either way, we're better off just not answering."  
  
Jet gave her one of his 'looks' that said, "Shut up already, woman!"   
  
Faye, in return, rolled her eyes at him and slumped back down on the couch, preparing to deliver a big, fat "I told you so" to him after she was proven right.  
  
Jet hit a button and a face appeared on the small monitor in front of them. A familiar face.  
  
Faye sat up quickly in surprise, which she regretted a moment later when her wounded shoulder throbbed painfully.  
  
"Electra?" Jet asked incredulously, clearly as surprised as Faye was.  
  
The dark haired woman nodded once. "Yes, it's me." She gave Jet a small smile. "It's good to see you still in one piece, old man."  
  
Jet made a face. "Old man?!?! Damn it, I'm only 36!!!"  
  
Electra chuckled. Faye did, too, though she knew well enough to hide it with one hand lest Jet spot her.  
  
Jet sighed. "Okay, now that the pleasantries are over, care to tell us why you called?"  
  
Electra's smile vanished. "Of course, you're right, Jet." She took a deep breath before continuing. "What I'm about to say is going to sound... a little crazy."  
  
Faye rolled her eyes. "No worries, we have the market cornered on crazy over here, so you'll fit right in."  
  
Electra nodded, a small smirk curving at the corners of her lips. The expression reminded Faye so much of Spike that it actually hurt to look at her. She blinked and glanced down at her hands for a moment, looking back at the other woman's face on the monitor once she'd regained her composure.  
  
"Right," Electra replied. "Well, then. Here goes..." A beat before she continued. "I got a very strange message today from someone who, well, shouldn't be in any position to be sending me messages."  
  
Faye made a face. "Been there, done that, got the gunshot wounds to prove it," she replied.  
  
Jet made a shushing motion at her with one hand, while indicating that Electra go on with the other.  
  
Faye subsided into silence uneasily, not really looking forward to hearing what the other woman was going to say next. She had a bad feeling that she already knew.  
  
"You need to see this message. It's important."  
  
"And why, pray tell, would we want to see a message that was sent to you?" Faye's voice was annoyed, but underneath that she was just plain tired. Both Jet and Electra could see it on her face.   
  
"Because," Electra replied, "It's from Spike."  
  
"Surprise, surprise," Faye muttered under her breath.  
  
Electra continued undaunted. "And I have reason to believe that it, unlike the ones you received, is real."  
  
Okay, so *that* was unexpected. Faye pinned Electra with a hard gaze. "How the hell do you know that I got faked messages from Spike?"  
  
Electra smiled, like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because he told me you did. And he told me that they weren't from him."  
  
Jet frowned, silencing any further remarks from Faye's corner with one raised hand. "Okay, so assuming for the moment that this message you got was the real thing, how did *Spike* know that Faye got any messages if he didn't send them?"  
  
Electra sighed. "Now that, Jet, is the tricky part..."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 8. Electra and the Bebop gang compare notes. Spike continues to search for answers. And trouble brews in the background, courtesy of Agent Jones.  
  
Random Addendum: I'm going to see the Matrix sequel on Sunday! Wheeeeeee! :) 


	9. Chapter Eight: Exit Light, Enter Night

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations   
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: *does back flips of glee and dances of joy* Wow, I made it past 30 reviews! I've never even made it past 20 before!!! *HUGE GRIN* Thanks sooooooo much, you guys! I'm jumping for joy in front of my computer! *HUGE, INSANE GRIN*  
  
And now... you know what time it is.... *drum roll* It's review answering time!!! :)  
  
La Cidiana: I'm glad adding Electra turned out for the good, at least as far as the majority of the reviews (like yours) seem to indicate. And I'm also glad that you liked that "12 Days of X-Mas" bit. Hehehe. I thought it was cute, too. It's nice to see I wasn't the only one. *g*  
  
emi: I had thought maybe you were the same person, but I didn't want to just assume. You know what they say about assuming... ;) Anyways, thanks for all the encouraging reviews! They really help keep me focused!   
  
Garden Panda: Hey, better late than never, right? *winks and grins* And wow, my story inspired a happy dance? *blushes* I'm so proud...  
  
Wicked-Wytch: Ooooh, sorry if I've spoiled anything about the Bebop movie for you. I know I mentioned the movie in the "spoilers" tag, but I sort of just thought that most people would have seen it by now. I, myself, saw it over a year ago by way of fansub. *g* I guess I need to remember that some people have to wait for the official DVD. *sighs* Oh, well. I'll try and keep any movie spoilers vague in the future. Here's hoping that you stick with me in spite of that! *hopeful smile*   
  
sidhe_ranma: Thanks for the compliments! And hey, guess what? This one's for you! An update before Wed, as requested! Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint! :)  
  
Lady Razorsharp: Thanks! I wasn't sure how my Agents came off, but it's good to know they were sufficiently scary.  
  
MegumiFuu: Agent Elrond? *dies laughing* That's such a great "nickname" for him!!! Hehehehe!!! And as for possible SxF, well, I am personally something of an SxF fan myself, so there will definitely be some interesting interaction between those two eventually (as soon as the rather complex plot I've got brewing permits it, that is). *g* Not saying any more than that, though... After all, I gotta keep a few surprises in store for ya'll, don't I? ;)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Exit light  
Enter night  
Take my hand  
Off to Never Never Land  
  
Now I lay me down to sleep  
Pray the Lord my soul to keep  
If I die before I wake  
Pray the Lord my soul to take  
  
Hush little baby, don't say a word  
And never mind that noise you heard  
It's just the beast under your bed  
In your closet, in your head  
  
("Enter Sandman" - Metallica)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 8: Exit light, Enter night  
  
The Absalom was a frenzy of activity. Annie was leading an expedition into the Matrix to do some recon on potential recruits. Everyone was excited about the day's events... except Spike.  
  
"I can't believe she's refusing to let me go," he grumbled dejectedly. "I would kill for some action right about now and she knows it."   
  
Spike was slouched on a chair next to Ginny with his feet propped up on one of the many consoles at the operations station. She gave him a sympathetic look as her fingers danced across the keyboards, getting everything ready for the day's activities.  
  
"Look on the bright side," she told him with a small smile. "You and Ed can keep me company while everyone else is gone. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to in here. Julian's always around, since he's the pilot and all, but he likes to go up and wait in the cockpit in case we need to leave in a hurry. So normally it's quiet as a tomb in here during missions."  
  
Spike sulked. "It's been over three months. How much longer do I have to wait? I'm starting to go stir crazy."  
  
Ginny shrugged, unable to give him any definite answers. "She'll let you go when she thinks you're ready."   
  
Even as she said the words, she knew how useless they were. Spike, apparently, concurred. "We both know that I'm more than ready! Hell, I can take out anyone on this ship in the sparring simulations, Annie included. You can't get much readier than that."  
  
"It's not just about skill level and you know it." Ginny sighed, watching Spike closely out of the corner of her eyes as she worked. "I know you don't want to hear this, Spike, but you're too much of a rebel for your own good. You keep making waves and you'll never get to go on any of the missions. Annie's a tough captain and she has a thing for the rules... rules that *you* keep breaking at every chance you get. If you want her to trust you, then you have to give her a reason to."   
  
Spike frowned. "I've never been one for following orders."  
  
Ginny gave him a sympathetic smile. "Maybe that's your problem."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The Bebop was currently docked on Mars, awaiting its newest visitor. Faye sat out on the deck, legs crossed Indian style, her back leaning against the closed hangar doors. Ein lay at her feet, dozing lightly, occasionally twitching his paws as he dreamed of chasing rabbits... or whatever the hell it was that dogs dreamed of, Faye mused.  
  
Titling her face up towards the sun, Faye sighed as its rays warmed her skin. A light breeze was blowing through her hair and the deck was warm beneath her. It was the perfect day, at least on the surface, until she remembered why they were here to begin with... The sound of an approaching vehicle interrupted Faye's thoughts and she scowled. Jet was back with Electra, which meant that her day was about to be shot to hell. The worst part of it was that she could see it coming, but there was nothing she could do about it.  
  
Faye thought of standing up to greet them, but a twinge in her shoulder from where she was shot by Agent Jones the other night made her rethink that idea. Instead she remained where she was and waited.  
  
Faye hated waiting.  
  
By the time the approaching engine cut off and footsteps began making their way up to the deck, Faye was already on edge. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out, trying to calm her nerves. She could sense disaster on its way in the form of one lanky, fluffy haired bounty hunter who was supposed to be dead. The thought was almost too much for her to handle. But she was determined that she *would* get a handle on it. And when the time came, she was damn well going to give said bounty hunter a piece of her mind about all the trouble and anguish he'd caused her.  
  
"Faye Valentine."  
  
The voice was familiar and feminine. Faye felt her lips curve up into a smirk; her eyes remained closed.  
  
"Electra Ovilo."  
  
She could hear the answering smirk in the other woman's voice. "It's been a while."  
  
Faye opened her eyes and squinted up at Electra, one hand rising to shield her eyes from the light of the sun. "Yes, it has," she replied easily, one eyebrow arching upwards as she studied the other woman's appearance. She was just as Faye remembered, dangerously beautiful and exotic with her short, dark hair, dark eyes and olive toned skin. Her body was slender and muscular, the body of a fighter, and she was dressed all in black, with the exception of her bright red jacket. "I can see you haven't changed much."  
  
Electra smiled down at her, taking in Faye's more conservative clothing and longer hair. The ex-military woman's gaze lingered on the dark circles under her eyes, testimony to the fact that the bounty huntress wasn't getting much sleep. "And I can see you have."  
  
Faye shrugged, not sure whether that was a compliment or an insult. She decided it didn't really matter. "Everything changes," she said simply as she slowly rose to her feet, being careful of her wounded shoulder.  
  
She noticed Jet walking up behind Electra and smiled at the older man, her eyes loosing a bit of their hardness when looking at her partner and friend. "Everything go okay?" she asked him.  
  
He nodded. "Fine. And how are you feeling?"  
  
Faye shrugged. "Same as before. A little pain but nothing to worry about."  
  
Electra studied the exchange between them with interest. Apparently they'd grown closer since the last time she'd seen them. Not that it was much of a surprise, she reminded herself. After Spike's death, it would have only been natural for the two surviving members of the Bebop's crew to grow closer. She watched as Jet gave Faye his arm to help her back into the ship, calling to Ein and gesturing for Electra to follow them. As they walked, Electra noticed small things, like how Faye continually downplayed her obviously painful injuries, trying to keep Jet from worrying too much. Or how Jet held the doors open for Faye and how he carefully guided her over to the couch to lie down, never once going too fast for her or pushing her too hard. Once Faye was situated, Jet continually glanced over at her, reassuring himself that she was indeed all right. Some might think this was the behavior of two people in love, but Electra knew better. They didn't have the total familiarity with each other that lovers did. In spite of the obvious caring, there was still that undercurrent of awkwardness that existed between friends of the opposite sex who haven't been completely intimate with each other. No, what these two shared went beyond physical love. They were family. Maybe not by blood, but in the only way that truly mattered. They had gone through the pain of loosing someone close to them both and there was no one else alive who could ever share that with them. It had formed a bond between them and that was something that couldn't be taken away by anyone.   
  
Electra sat down in a chair across from the couch and placed her hands on her lap, sitting with her back ramrod straight out of habit from her military days. She suddenly felt out of place here on the Bebop. Watching Jet and Faye with each other made her feel like she was on the outside looking in. She didn't belong here. There was only one other person who belonged here...  
  
"Ahem," she began, clearing her throat softly. She wanted to get down to business and deliver this message so she could leave again. Being here just made her feel more alone than ever. But she would see this through. She owed Spike that much after everything he'd done for her.  
  
Jet looked over at her and smiled, obviously trying to make her feel comfortable. Electra couldn't help but smile back. That was Jet for you, always playing the host and the peacemaker, trying to make sure that everyone around him was all right.  
  
"You said you had a message from Spike," Faye said, breaking in on the quiet moment. Electra's smile grew a bit wider. Yep, and that was Faye for you, always wanting to hurry up and get to the point. The purple-haired bounty huntress hated waiting.  
  
"Yes," Electra replied, pulling her communicator out of her jacket pocket. "I do."  
  
She reached out and placed it on the table between them, silently inviting them to pick it up and look at the message that waited for them there.  
  
Faye and Jet looked at each other, something passing between them in that look that Electra couldn't interpret, and then Jet reached out and picked up the communicator, opened the message and began to read...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Everything had been going as planned.   
  
Annie took a small group inside the Matrix - Eli, Zeke, Dom, Mac and herself - and they split up to cover both targets. Eli took the older and more experienced two crewmembers with him, leaving Mac under Annie's supervision for the duration of the mission. This was Mackenzie's first mission into the Matrix, so Annie wanted the young blonde to stick close by her side.   
  
Meanwhile, back on the Absalom, Spike and Ginny watched over their comrades' still bodies while their minds journeyed through the mass of electronic signals and computer code that made up the Matrix. Julian waited up in the cockpit, ready to take off at a moment's notice, and they weren't exactly sure where Ed was. She'd disappeared inside one of the many crawlspaces on board the Absalom a few hours ago and nobody had heard from her since. She had many different little hiding places around the ship, so the crew was used to her random appearances and disappearances by now.  
  
As far as the mission went, everything had been going as planned. But it only took one mistake to send it all spiraling out of control.  
  
The two targets were in the same building. A large warehouse that was home to a techno club that many of the best young hackers on Mars frequented.   
  
Eli's team was keeping an eye on target #1: a slender, young brunette who went by the online alias of Persephone. She was a rising star in the computer world, able to perform some of the trickiest hack jobs in extremely short periods of time. There was already a rather large bounty on her head. Naturally, Annie was interested in her.  
  
Meanwhile, Annie and Mac were watching target #2: a handsome Latino who used the pseudonym of Stryker when doing jobs. He was older than most of the people Annie usually targeted - he would be turning twenty in a few weeks - but he had recently begun numerous searches for information on the Matrix, which had sent up a lot of red flags. Annie knew that if she didn't approach him soon, someone much less pleasant would.  
  
Unfortunately for them, that less pleasant individual had picked tonight to do his approaching.  
  
Ginny saw it first. A glitch in the Matrix that was all too familiar.  
  
"Shit," she breathed. "An Agent."  
  
Spike jumped up from where he'd been just starting to doze off on a nearby chair and moved over to her side. "Can you call them?"  
  
Ginny shook her head. "Negative. Annie has everyone maintain strict radio silence during missions to avoid detection from any surveillance in the area. Their communicators are off."  
  
Spike cursed under his breath. "Well, that's just great, isn't it? Now we can't even give them a heads up."  
  
Ginny's eyes widened. "Oh my god," she breathed, her hands frozen a few inches above the keyboard.  
  
"What?" Spike demanded, turning to look at her face.  
  
"There's more than one of them."  
  
Spike eyes narrowed. "How many?"  
  
Ginny's voice was small and scared when she answered and Spike couldn't help but think that she had never sounded more young or alone than she did just then. "Four. There are four Agents in the building." Her hands were trembling badly.  
  
Spike grabbed Ginny by the shoulders and gave her a rough shake. "Gin, you have to focus, okay? I can't have you loosing it on me now. You got it?"  
  
The young operator nodded, her eyes wide. "I'll be okay... but Spike! They'll be killed! Four Agents..."  
  
Spike shook his head. "No, they won't be. I won't let it happen."   
  
Releasing Ginny's arms, he walked over to the last remaining chair and sat down in it, taking a deep, calming breath. He met Ginny's frightened gaze with his own determined one.   
  
"I'm going in."  
  
Spike's lips curved into a smirk. Finally, some *real* action...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 9. It's taken me one prologue and eight chapters to get here, but it's happening at last! Spike is going back into the Matrix! And back on the Bebop, Jet, Faye and Electra continue to try and unravel the mystery that Spike's supposed death left in its wake, starting with the message he sent them... 


	10. AUTHOR's NOTE: We are experiencing techn...

AUTHOR's NOTE: We are experiencing technical difficulties....  
  
I have to apologize to my faithful readers. I had the next part almost finished but then my computer crashed and we had to completely wipe the HD clean. Being the silly girl that I am, I didn't have all of my files backed up so everything that wasn't either published online somewhere or on the *really* old and out of date backup disk I made ages ago was lost. And that includes the chapter of this fic that I had almost finished. *sobs* All this time working on it and then to lose it! It's just so... painful. So, sadly, I must start the new chapter over again and try to recapture what I lost. Which is always hard to do. :(  
  
Anyways... just wanted to let you guys know what was taking me so long. But never fear, even though I am having to rewrite it all, I am still working on it! I haven't abandoned this fic or anything. However, I am in the process of moving to a new apartment and I leave for a two weeks vacation in California in the second week of July, so I don't know when I'll manage to get the new chapter done. *sighs* I really wish I hadn't lost all my work. I was SO CLOSE to being finished with it!!   
  
Well, please do wish me luck on re-writing the new chapter!  
  
*sighs again at the unfairness of it all and walks away somewhat dejectedly* 


	11. Chapter Nine: Mona Lisa Overdrive

Title: Through the Glass, Darkly  
  
Series: None  
  
Author: Sonya  
  
Email: sonyajeb@swbell.net  
  
Rating: R for language, violence and adult situations   
  
Timeline: Directly following Session 26  
  
Spoilers: The entire series (including the movie) and general Matrix info  
  
Summary: Matrix x-over. Spike didn't die; he was just unplugged. How will everyone's favorite Bruce Lee-loving Space Cowboy deal when he is thrown into the "real world" without a net?   
  
Disclaimer: There was once a girl who wrote a story about some characters and places that weren't hers. But she added this little disclaimer to make it a tad less illegal. (i.e. Cowboy Bebop isn't mine and never will be. Neither is The Matrix. As if you hadn't already figured that out.)   
  
Feedback: Look! It's secret mail-mail from Mars-Mars! (i.e. I want any and all feedback. Good, bad, indifferent? Doesn't matter. Still want it. *g*)  
  
Author's Note: Spike's going inside the Matrix for the first time since being unplugged! Wheeeee! It might have been a long time coming, but hopefully it's worth it! *g* And sorry for making you guys wait so long for this chapter. RL has been a pain lately, getting between me and my writing time. *grrrs at annoying RL* Not to mention the computer issues.... :(  
  
Sorry to everyone that was hoping for more from the Jet/Faye/Electra angle this chapter. Spike decided to hog all the action this time around. But we'll get back to the crew on the Bebop next time. Promise. ;)  
  
Anyways... Now is the time when I'd usually move onto more review answering.... but with my unexpected delays in getting this finished, quite a few reviews have accumulated. So I'm putting my responses to them at the end of the fic instead. Make sure to take a look if you've left me a review since chapter 8 was posted. I tried to reply to all of them! :)  
  
Finally, this chapter's title comes from a William Gibson novel of the same name. *g* Just giving credit where credit is due...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;   
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;   
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,   
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;   
The best lack all convictions, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.   
  
(The Second Coming -- W. B. Yeats)  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 9: Mona Lisa Overdrive  
  
Somehow Spike had expected the Matrix to seem different when he was finally allowed back in. He'd thought that he'd be able to tell instinctually that it was fake. But on the contrary, it felt more real than his life back on the Absalom. This was the world that he'd spent the first twenty seven years of his life living, fighting, loving and eventually dying in. And despite everything he'd learned and everything he'd seen since being unplugged, the Matrix still felt more real than anything else he'd experienced. He felt more at home in a computer program than he did in the real world. Did that mean he was royally screwed up? Probably. But that was alright. Spike was used to being classified as 'screwed up' so it wasn't as if it was anything new.  
  
His current look *was* new, however. He stood in the middle of the street at Adams and 4th in all black -- tight, black leather pants, black mesh shirt, black leather duster, black boots and even black sunglasses - and he felt more like a freak than ever. Usually his blue suit and insane hair was enough to attract odd glances, but now he looked like a green-haired freak turned pimp daddy. Sunglasses at night? Whoever heard of that? All he needed was a huge, fake-gold medallion and a couple of piercings and he'd be all set.  
  
Flipping open his cell phone, he waited for the tone and then Ginny's voice came through. "Operator."  
  
"What the hell am I wearing?" Spike demanded as he made his way over to the sidewalk at a brisk clip, already heading for the techno club where Annie and the rest of the crew were staked out, unaware of the Agents in their midst. "Are these clothes some kind of freak programming glitch or do you take a perverse pleasure out of making me stick out like a sore thumb?"  
  
Ginny's giggle annoyed him. As far as Spike was concerned, this was *not* a laughing matter. "Ginny..." he said in warning, his voice low.  
  
The young girl pushed aside her amusement for a moment and replied hastily, "Trust me, Spike. Where you're going, you'll be one of the normal ones... practically conservative even."  
  
Spike sighed as he saw the lights of the club just down the street. "Fine, but I'm trusting you on this, Gin."  
  
As it turned out, Spike shouldn't have worried.   
  
The Dead Canary was practically bursting at the seems, it was so full of life. The pulse pounding beat that came from the music blaring out of the speakers hidden in just about every nook and cranny around the club made even Spike's teeth vibrate. It was hotter than hell inside, with people packed together so tightly that the dance floor resembled some kind of writhing beast composed of human flesh. And Ginny had been right. Spike's pimp daddy look was by far one of the more conservative ensembles in the place. As he made his way through the mass of people, Spike saw some outfits that were enough to almost make his eyes pop out of his head, which was saying a lot considering his ability to remain cool and unaffected in even the most extreme circumstances. Black leather was a theme, definitely. As was wildly colored hair and rather painful looking body piercings. One guy walked by with a real human spinal column complete with tailbone and wildly decorative fake-wings hung over the back of his clothing. Spike felt his eyebrows climbing up until they disappeared underneath his hairline. Suddenly he was quite glad that Ginny hadn't felt like making him blend in even more than she had.  
  
With all the eye-catching garb present, it didn't take Spike long to start spotting the Agents. They apparently didn't believe in going undercover, seeing as they still sported their traditional black dress suits and sunglasses. There were four, just like Ginny had said, and they were spread out in different locations throughout the club. Spike slinked around among the crowds, his crazy looking hair actually helping him hide rather than hindering him for once in his life. Hiding in plain sight was one of the oldest tricks in the book, but that didn't make it any less effective.   
  
As he watched the agents, he was able to easily locate all the members of Annie's crew by simply looking where the Agents were looking. Eli, Zeke and Dom were on the west side of the club, while Annie and Mac were closer to Spike on the east side. Neither group had spotted the Agents yet.   
  
As Spike looked on, the Agents slowly began pairing up, which allotted two for each rebel group. Spike cursed under his breath. He'd hoped to get a little more time before the Agents made their move.   
  
If this had been just another bounty hunting fiasco, he would have started targeting the bad guys and taken them out. But this wasn't normal, far from it. And if he started shooting Agents, not only would he lose the small advantage that the element of surprise gave him, but any Agent he shot would just possess one of the hundreds of other available human bodies present and continue with his mission. What he needed to do was somehow alert both of the Absalom groups to the Agents' presence and then get them all to split up and leave the club immediately, each taking a different path to the nearest available hard-line access, where Ginny was waiting just a phone call away. And he would stay behind to distract the Agents until the last possible minute, securing the group's escape. In theory it was a great plan, but in practice it didn't look like things were going to go as planned.  
  
Ditching plan A, Spike began making his way to the closest group: Annie and Mac. Time for plan B. He would warn them and once they were on their way out the door, he'd make a big enough scene to attract the attention of both the Agents and Eli's group. And then he'd just have to hope for the best. As he elbowed his way through the crowds, Spike silently prayed that plan B would work. Because he didn't have a fucking clue what to do should he need a plan C.  
  
He reached Annie's table and casually walked past them, trying not to attract the Agents' attention if at all possible. As he walked by Annie, he let his elbow nudge her in the back as he passed. "Don't turn around," he said, speaking out of the corner of his mouth. He had to practically yell to be heard over the music, which made being casual a lot more difficult. Annie, to her credit, was a pro. She recognized his voice immediately and her face didn't twitch a muscle. Nothing about her betrayed the fact that she'd just had quite a shock.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asked loudly, to be heard over the noise, though she kept her eyes trained on Mac the entire time, so that to most people it would look like she was speaking to the young blonde. Mac had spotted Spike by that point and quickly averted her eyes, staring silently down at the table.   
  
"I'm not the only unwanted company you've got," Spike announced, casually lighting up a cigarette as he spoke, half turned away from Annie and Mac. "Ten o'clock and four o'clock, two suits per group."  
  
Annie's eyes narrowed when she spotted them. "Shit."  
  
Spike smirked. "I thought that'd be your opinion of the situation."  
  
Annie quirked up one eyebrow, already slowly sneaking one hand underneath the table and pulling her gun out. She held it in her lap, ready for use at a moment's notice. "So, I'm assuming by the amount of 'smug' in your voice that you have some sort of plan."  
  
Spike shrugged lightly, keeping one eye on the approaching Agents and the other on Eli's team across the room. "It's more of a rough idea, but it'll have to do."  
  
Annie frowned but said nothing. However, Mac looked extremely scared and the gun that she clutched in her hands underneath the table was trembling. Spike was somewhat afraid that the kid was going to lose it before this was over. Which meant that the sooner he got her and Annie out of here, the better.   
  
"You two head for the door but act casual about it. Don't tip the Agents off to the fact that we're on to them. The closest hard-line is at Harris and 6th. Ginny's on standby to get you both out of there as soon as possible."  
  
Annie's mouth had compressed into a hard line. "What about Eli and the others?"  
  
"I'll do what I can. He's a smart kid. When he sees the scene I'm about to make, he'll know something's up."  
  
The older woman opened her mouth to voice an objection but Spike silenced her with a terse, "Shut up and get yourself and the girl the hell out of here, Annie. We both know I'm the best fighter. I have to stay behind; it's the only way."  
  
Once he got a nod of confirmation, Spike casually began to walk away from their table, acting for all the world like they hadn't just been having a rather intense conversation. He tracked Annie's movements out of the corner of his eye and silently breathed a sigh of relief when, a few moments later, she and Mac stood up and began slowly making their way towards the nearest exit. Annie made it look like she was simply going for a stroll, not a care in the world. Mac was not as good of an actress, but Spike didn't have time to offer her any tips. The Agents had noticed their movement and two of them were changing course to intercept the women rebels.   
  
Spike smirked and changed course himself, one hand already reaching inside his coat pocket. As his fingers wrapped around the cool metal grip of his gun, he smirked and carefully slipped in behind the second of the two Agents. He pulled the gun out and calmly placed it against the back of the Agent's head. "Sorry, pal," Spike remarked with a flippant grin. "But I can't let you leave just yet."   
  
The sound of the gunshot was lost amidst the pounding music and the body of the Agent crumpled to the floor, a flash of odd colored lightning dancing over his features as he reverted back into the form of the person he had been occupying. The other Agent whirled around and aimed a gun at Spike, but the ex-bounty hunter was already in motion, spinning into a high kick and knocking the gun from the startled Agent's hand.  
  
Spike saw Annie and Mac reach the door and slip outside, which was his cue to start *really* making a scene. Dropping into a crouch, he spun and knocked the Agent's feet out from under him, sending the suit sprawling to the ground. Leaping to his feet, Spike sighted and fired off three rounds into the large stereo system that sat onstage, which cut the music off mid-note and plunged the club into a shocked silence.  
  
Just then, the Agent he'd shot in the head appeared before him, having obviously taken over a new body. Before Spike had a chance to blink, the gun was knocked from his hand and the other Agent he'd just kicked had regained his footing and had grabbed Spike by the neck from behind, attempting to strangle the life out of him. Meanwhile, Agent number 2 was pointing a gun at Spike's head, ready to shoot him should the whole strangulation thing not work.  
  
Grinning wolfishly, Spike reached behind him and latched his hands onto the Agent's arms for support. Then, in a gravity-defying move that he was sure would have made even Bruce Lee himself proud, Spike kicked off the ground, one foot slamming into the second Agent's hand and knocking his gun away. Continuing with his upwards momentum, Spike felt the hands of the Agent behind him wrench free of his neck as he flipped over the sentient program's head and finally landed in a light crouch on the ground just behind him. Pulling two more guns out from underneath his coat - Ginny had packed him with a rather large arsenal for this job - he fired off four shots into the Agent's back at point blank range, sending the host body falling to the ground while the Agent presumably went to find another human to take control of.  
  
Spike remained balanced on the balls of his feet, crouching low, his guns aimed at Agent number 2. "God, I love the Matrix!" he exclaimed, shaking his head in something that was almost glee. "I mean, *this* is my kind of fight, you know?"  
  
"You don't stand a chance," the Agent informed him, his voice monotone and emotionless.   
  
Spike smirked. "Hey, impossible odds are my specialty."  
  
He fired off two quick shots, which the Agent dodged easily, and then leapt to his feet and began dashing through the crowd, which was in the middle of a full fledged panic. They'd apparently finally stopped zoning out on whatever drug was popular lately for long enough to recognize the sound of gunshots in their midst and were now on a mad stampede towards the nearest available exit. Perfect. It would be ridiculously easy for Eli and the others to slip away in the midst of all of this insanity. Not even an Agent could see everywhere at once, after all.  
  
A hand latched onto Spike's shoulder and he whirled, his gun out, and barely recognized Eli's face in time to keep from firing. Spike frowned. Okay, the plan would only work if the others actually *left* the club. Morons. Didn't they recognize a distraction when they saw one?  
  
"Spike, what the hell is going on?" Eli demanded. Dom and Zeke were close by.  
  
Spike rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Isn't it obvious? I'm saving your ass. So you could do me a favor and actually leave, hence accomplishing the ass-saving portion of the deal."  
  
Someone knocked into Spike from behind, which sent him stumbling forward. Eli steadied him with both hands on his arms. As they stood there, the crowd continued to go berserk around them.   
  
"Where are Annie and Mac?" Eli asked, reaching into his coat and pulling out his gun as he spoke. Spike noticed Zeke and Dom already had their own guns out and had made a protective sort of half-circle around him and Eli, eyes scanning the crowds.   
  
"They already left and you need to do the same," Spike replied. "There are four Agents here. The mission is being aborted."  
  
"You can't fight four Agents on your own," Zeke called back over her shoulder. "We should stick together. Watch each other's backs."  
  
"I work better alone," Spike replied, shoving Eli away from him. "Now would you three stop being so damn noble and start listening to me for once? You need to get out of here. This crowd won't hold off those Agents for long and I want you gone by the time they spot me again. Ginny has an exit ready at Harris and 6th. Now go!"  
  
Eli shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving anybody behind."  
  
Spike sighed. "Look, kid..."  
  
Before he could finish his sentence a gunshot rang out and Eli's eyes widened in pain. Blood began to dribble out of his mouth and down his chin as he slumped forward. Spike caught him clumsily in his arms, gritting his teeth in anger at the sight of a large gunshot wound in the boy's back.   
  
"Spike..." Eli muttered brokenly as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and his body stilled.  
  
"Fuck!" Spike yelled, dropping the boy's body and grabbing Dom and Zeke by the back of their shirt collars and yanking them back towards him. "Get the fuck out of here!" he yelled, shaking them for emphasis before releasing them. "NOW!"  
  
Dom nodded and moved for the exit, his face pale but determined. Zeke, however, remained frozen, staring down at Eli's crumpled form in shock. "No..." she whispered, her gun dangling uselessly at her side.   
  
Spike saw a flash of silver to his right and grabbed Zeke about the waist, diving for the floor just as another gunshot sounded nearby, barely missing them.   
  
He leapt to his feet again almost immediately, dragging the unresponsive Zeke up by the arm, and began making his way to the door. He saw that Dom was almost there already. "Damn it, I'm gonna get you two out of here if it kills me," he muttered, continuing to drag Zeke along as he weaved back and forth through the crowds, keeping as low as possible to try and dodge the Agents.  
  
They made it to the door right after Dom and Spike paused just outside the club. Tugging Zeke forward roughly, he shoved her into Dom's surprised arms. "Get yourselves to the exit. Harris and 6th. No questions, just go!"  
  
Dom nodded and began herding Zeke along down the streets, sticking to the shadows as much as possible.  
  
Spike turned and ducked back inside the club, noting with a grimace that the crowd had thinned out considerably. He spotted the Agents immediately. They stood around Eli's body, guns holstered, speaking into small headsets that fastened to their ears.   
  
Spike decided to take advantage of their distraction and aimed a gun at the closest Agent's head. He fired off two quick shots, but the Agent somehow anticipated them and easily dodged. All four of the Agents, now alerted to Spike's presence, brought their guns up and started firing. Spike dove to one side, rolling behind the bar and quickly pulling out a second gun to replace the one he'd dropped while trying to get Zeke and Dom to safety. He waited for the gunshots to stop and then leapt to his feet, quickly firing off a couple of shots at the Agents before diving down behind the bar again for cover from their return fire.  
  
"You can't win this fight," one of the Agents coolly informed him between shots. "Surrender now and your death will be quick, unlike the deaths of those you helped to escape tonight. They will die slowly and painfully."  
  
Spike rolled his eyes. "You know," he called out flippantly, "I've fought every kind of criminal, from low life thieves to Syndicate overlords, and there's one thing that never fails. They all have to make that clichéd 'surrender and your death will be easy' speech. I mean, seriously, do you guys really think that anybody ever falls for that anymore? Because if you do, then you're even more stupid than you look. Which is saying a lot." He began crawling along behind the bar as he spoke, looking for something to help even up the odds, though what he thought he'd find behind the bar was unclear even to him.   
  
He paused next to a silver canister used to mix drinks that had tumbled to the floor, spilling out an unidentified liquid on the ground. Picking it up, he took a sip of the remainder and then made a face, quickly spitting it back out. "Ugh," he muttered, grimacing, "Can nobody make a decent drink these days?"   
  
The sound of crunching glass indicated that the Agents were on the move. Most likely trying to surround him. "Yeah, right," he muttered. "Like I'm gonna fall for that one."   
  
Picking his guns back up, he paused, counted to three and then leapt to his feet and jumped over the bar in one smooth motion, guns blazing. He landed in a crouch and then sprung up, sprinting for the door for all he was worth and firing over his shoulder as he ran. He heard the sound of return fire but didn't spare even a second to glance behind him. One bullet flashed by so close to his head that it nicked his cheek, the resulting sting just spurring him on faster.  
  
He made it to the door and dove toward the ground, rolling and bracing his hands on the ground in a psuedo-backflip, dropping his now empty guns and balancing on one hand while he used the other to pull out a fresh gun as he allowed his momentum to continue to carry him forward. Kicking his feet to the side, he planted them firmly on the door and then kicked off of it, flipping in mid-air and landing in a crouch just to the side of the doorway. Gunfire skittered across the pavement, almost nicking his boot heels, as the Agents gave chase, almost at the door now.  
  
Grinning, Spike braced himself and then jumped straight up and, in an almost superhuman feat, latched onto the overhang of the roof with the hand not carrying a gun and flipped himself up onto the roof and out of sight just as the Agents rushed outside.  
  
He watched as they rushed off down the street, no doubt assuming that he was already well ahead of them. Idiots. Sentient computer programs they might be, but excellent strategists they definitely were not. "Well, would ya look at me," he muttered with a smirk. "Thinkin' a hundred moves ahead. Jet would be proud."  
  
Taking off across the roof at a dead run, Spike easily jumped to the next roof and continued on towards the predetermined exit point in that manner, roof hopping his way above the city streets and keeping an eye on the Agents as he went. They eventually split up, going off in four different directions to try and track their prey. But apparently the thought that he might be directly above them had yet to cross their minds because they never looked up once. Which didn't really bother Spike in the slightest.  
  
He made it to the exit point in excellent time, managing to get there just as Dom and Zeke were arriving, the young girl being in a state of shock over Eli's death apparently having slowed them down somewhat. The fact that the phone receiver was dangling abandoned, gently swaying back and forth, just confirmed that Annie and Mac had already been here and were now safe aboard the Absalom. But Spike didn't turn on his cell phone to call and find out for sure. He didn't want any chances of the Agents tracing the call when they were this close to being out of here.  
  
Spike jumped from the roof and dropped to the ground without making a sound, landing in an easy crouch with an almost cat-like grace. He watched as Dom picked up the receiver and hung it back up. The phone began to ring almost instantly and Spike grinned. You had to hand it to her, Ginny was definitely quick.  
  
Dom picked up the phone and then handed the receiver to Zeke. "You first," he told her, watching with compassionate eyes as she took hold of the receiver in trembling hands. Eli's death had really done a number on her, that much was painfully obvious.  
  
Spike stood up and took a step toward them, nodding to Dom in greeting when the boy noticed his presence. Zeke placed the phone to her ear and then gasped as she suddenly vanished into nothingness before their very eyes, no doubt waking up on the Absalom at this very moment. Spike couldn't help but grin in relief. At last, they were almost home free.  
  
Dom hung the phone up as Spike moved to stand beside him. When it began to ring again, he shot Spike a grin. Then he reached out to answer it just as a bullet hit him in the back of the head and sent blood and gray matter splattering across Spike's face as the boy's body collapsed to the ground. Later, Spike would tell himself that at least the kid hadn't seen it coming. He'd died thinking that he was about to be home and safe and had never known what hit him. But for now, all he could do was lunge for the forgotten receiver where it hung dangling by its cord and ram it up against his ear. As the world around him slowly faded away in a sea of bright, green computer code, he dimly heard another gunshot and felt a flash of pain and then... nothingness.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Coming Soon: Chapter 10. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Yes, I know, I'm evil. Heh. But you all still love me anyway, right? ;)  
  
And finally... here are my replies to all my lovely reviewers! *g* Thanks so much for all your kind words! They really helped me get inspired to write this chapter again after I lost it in the computer crash. I don't know if I would have been able to get back in the saddle, so to speak, without all of your praise and encouragement. :)  
  
Wicked-Wytch: Wow, you think I write the best cliffhangers ever? *blushes* Thank you so much! That's quite a compliment!  
  
emi: You said, "who can resist the universe's hottest bounty-hunter in black leather?" And I must reply, of course, "Nobody can!!!" *grins and winks* As for the possibility of SxF and the Spike revival concept, yes, both are things that one sees all the time in Bebop fanfiction, to the point of becoming tired clichés unless the author is very careful. Many people I know avoid a lot of Bebop fics for just this reason! I know this and continually try to keep such things, when used in my stories, as fresh as possible given the circumstances. Hopefully, from your kind words, I can take that to mean that I'm succeeding at least somewhat in my aims. And never fear, I will continue to try and keep this story fresh and different from other Spike revival fics out there, though its up to you guys to let me know if I ever start to sink into tired fic clichés, okay? I would hate to end up with something that can just be lumped in with all the other Spike revival fics out there, especially when I began with such high hopes of creating something unique and original here!  
  
MegumiFuu: I don't think I'll ever be able to watch a Matrix flick again without thinking of that Agent Elrond bit! Hehehehe!!! Or Lord of the Rings, for that matter... "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Baggins" indeed. *g* And I'm glad you like the character of Ginny. Out of all the new crewmembers, she's the one that has had the most "screen time" in this fic, so if she turned out flat or uninteresting, it would pose a big problem for me! And as for the Faye/Electra dynamic, I'm glad you liked it. I've always thought that the two of them would make for interesting friends and I love being able to explore that idea in this story!  
  
pvegie: Thanks for the compliments and I'm glad you think I'm pulling this crazy idea of mine off!  
  
sidhe_ranma: Hey, I live in Texas! :P But yeah, you're welcome. :)  
  
Case: Thanks for the compliments on my cast of charries and how I write Agents. They're much appreciated. And yeah, poor Faye is out of commission for a while. But I'm sure she'll find a way to cause some trouble again before long. *g* She is Faye Valentine, after all. Trouble is her middle name. *winks* Also, good luck with your apartment move. Hopefully it's going better than mine. *makes a face*  
  
Misoks: Here's hoping 'Spike vs. the Agents' didn't disappoint! :)  
  
Lady Russell Holmes: Here's some more for you. And I agree, Spike would have a blast fighting the Smiths, LOL! *g*  
  
cevgar: Thanks for the well wishes and condolences. And also, thank you so much for the high praise you gave me! You really think this is the best Anime/Matrix crossover you've ever read? *blushes* Wow, thank you soooooo much. :D  
  
SirusPolaris: Thank you for the compliments and also thanks so much for the lovely email you sent me! It really made my day! :) 


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